TIME AND TIDE

I'm revisiting this after a gap of a few years. I bought it mainly because of the brilliant instrumental "Catalan" which I remember from my days of listening to Nicky Horne on Capital Radio. Much of the music here is of the rocky, keyboard based vein, similar to Manfred Mann's Earth Band and features the dual keyboards of Daves Greenslade and Lawson.. "Animal Farm" kicks off the album in a fairly rocky way, "Time" is a short interlude featuring a Welsh male voice choir, quickly followed by the instrumental "Tide" with liberal use of Mellotron from Dave Greenslade. The afore-mentioned "Catalan" bursts in with handclaps and staccato snare drum and is the best song on the album for me. The album ends with "Gangsters" which older British members may remember from BBC1 in 1975.

The only thing that mars the album slightly for me is the vocal style of singer Dave Lawson, which is probably an acquired taste. I must admit I had ignored this album because I found the vocals grating but now I feel it's time I re-evaluated it. The instrumental work is excellent, recommended for fans of keyboards, so I can safely give it 3 stars, although it may have been 4 with a different singer.