CHANGING HORSES

The first "officialization" of ISB becoming a quartet is with Changing Horses' artwork, where both Licorice and Rose appear. Again as a sign of rivalry between Robin and Mike, if Rose's bassist role appeared as now necessary, Licorice's few vocals and finger percussions seemed a bit light, so she was put on kazoo and keyboards, where she appears credible (at least on this record) and on all tracks bur two, one being reserved by Ivan Pawle, leader of the Irish equivalent of ISB, D Strangely Strange.

As you'd guess the album is more or less evenly spread out, with both songwriters grabbing three tracks including an "epic" each. With Heron grabbing the lion's share of the opening side, with the almost-15 mins White Bird, which is repetitive except around its end, where welcome changes appear. As he writes also the repetitive Dust Be Diamond, you could say that the tracks is just as boring, overstaying its welcome, while the a capella Sleepers Awake lacks interest. Yup, it(s clearly Williamson's song that attract a bit of interest from the progheads, but the average Mr & Mrs and the album opening Big Ted are nothing worth writing home about, the lengthy 16-mins long Creation holds some really interesting passages, making this track the most interesting since Hangman. With slight eastern accent given in the singing, but through Mike's sitar as well. While some might say that that the track is also repetitive, but here it's used to its advanteges

If it wasn't for Creation, the album would of Wee Tam's boringness, but Creation is giving it an edge and so it climbs to TBH's case and even 5000 Sprits. I wouldn't call this album essential by all means, but it shows that ISB could still manage some interesting moments, despite having seen their better days past by some time by now.