HERO AND HEROINE

Their first album with the new line-up, key-man John Hawken coming from Renaissance and Coombes/Cronk as replacement for the Hudson/Ford rhythm section. Though they suppressed here considerably the country rock feel coming obvious on their previous one H & H cannot keep up with the standard of their FTW and GNW albums by any means. Certainly it has its moments (like the follow-up has them as well) but overall it can't offer more than (often too overly) melodic and harmonic Mellotron-laden sound owing much to bands like Moody, Procol or BJH. Even the songs where electric guitars are taking over a bit more cannot change much of this impression or even worsen it since they sound too much straight forward. Best songs are still the Autumn-suite and the title track and in the end this one had been a pleasant and fairly good album by the remnant of a band that once started as a very promising and fascinating one. Certainly not essential and just good for 3 stars!