NEW LEAF

"New Leaf" is the fourth full-length studio album by UK, Bristol based jazz/rock/progressive rock act East of Eden. The album was released through Harvest Records in November 1971. It´s the successor to the band´s eponymously titled third full-length studio album from June 1971. One lineup change has taken place since the last album but this time around no one has left but instead Dave Weller (saxophone) has been added to the lineup, making East of Eden a quintet on "New Leaf". "New Leaf" would be the last East of Eden album to feature Dave Arbus (violin, winds), who at this point was the last original member of the band. East of Eden weren´t completely done though and they continued to tour without any original members in the lineup and even recorded three more albums in the years 1975-1978 after which they disbanded.

The June 1971 "East of Eden" album was quite the departure from the jazz/rock and avant-garde leanings of the February 1970 "Snafu" album, with its folky rock sound and only the occasional nod towards the jazz/rock and psychedelic rock of the first two albums by the band, and although "New Leaf´s" opening track "Bradshaw the Bison Hunter" may initally promise a return to the jazz/rock of "Snafu", that promise soon fizzles out when the folk rock of "Ain't Gonna Do You No Harm" kicks in. "New Leaf" soon turns out to be an even more stripped down, laid back, and folk/blues oriented vers/chorus structured rock album than the predecessor. It´s all well performed and enjoyable enough while it plays, but it´s hard not to miss the experimental songwriting of the early releases and not find this just a tad generic.

"New Leaf" is a well produced release, featuring a powerful, organic, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well, so on most parameters it´s a good quality release. So it´s probably comes down to the expectations you have before listening to the album. It´s not a surprise that this is the musical direction if you have listened to the album which came before this one, but if you come to this having only listened to the first two albums, you´ll probably come away disappointed. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.