BREATHE AWHILE

"Breathe Awhile" (1969) is another re-discovered rare album treasure from the archives. The British band Arcadium released this one amazing album before going their separate ways and disappearing without trace, in common with many other one- album bands of the late 1960's psychedelic era. The album is filled with the powerful resonating sound of the Hammond organ, twinned with some masterly way-out acid guitar leads for fans of Psychedelic Rock. The album features two epic, stand-out songs, running at over 10 minutes long, the first track "I'm on My Way" and the final track "Birth, Life & Death". There are no album-fillers on this album. Every song stands up well on its own merits and blends in perfectly with the album as a whole. The CD album also includes two bonus tracks featuring the two singles released the same year as the album.

The epic album opener "I'm on My Way" is the highlight of the album. It's a hauntingly atmospheric song with a deliciously slow build-up after a deceptively quiet beginning. The spacey song features a delicately-played Hammond organ, laid-back acid guitar riffs, steady drumming, haunting ethereal voices and some atmospheric sound effects. The memorable song explodes into a full bore psychedelic jam of dramatic intensity around about the 9-minute mark, which should delight fans of way-out Acid Rock. Track 2 "Poor Lady" is a pure out-and-out rocker which maintains the fast pace from the previous song. Track 3 "Walk on the Bad Side" starts quietly with a gentle melody before bursting into life with some heavy guitar riffing and fast and wild Hammond organ-playing. Track 4 "Woman of a Thousand Years" is another up-tempo number with the ever-present Hammond organ blending nicely with acid guitar riffs and powerful drumming. Track 5 "Change Me" is one of those powerful and dramatically memorable songs that could have gone on to become a classic if it had received some radio airplay. Track 6 "It Takes a Woman" is another fast-paced Hard Rock song with a change of pace at the end to keep things interesting. Finally, this brings us to the second epic song "Birth, Life & Death" to play out the album. Everything is thrown into the mix for this song, including frantic Hammond organ-playing, wild psychedelic guitar riffs and a pounding drum beat, and the song also features a dramatic change of pace midway through, before concluding with a tremendous crescendo of sound. It's a perfect ending to a classic album.

This memorable album grows on you with repeated listening and it should appeal to any fans of British Psychedelic Rock.

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