SKELETON IN ARMOUR

Hmmmmmm.............. Why am I listening, let alone, reviewing this ?

This type of music is pretty far of the path I normally follow on my way into the sunset and a life with tenthousandonehundredandseventynine women in Eldorado. But I will give it a try anyway.

This band does a pretty standard British mix of blues, rock, folk and progressive rock. Their sound is pretty early 1970s where everybody were experimenting with music, drugs and politics. Fusion Orchestra spent most of that time on the road, playing in every bus shelter, pub and music hall from the Lerwick in the north to Land's End in the south. The result is an album like Skeleton In Armour where you can feel that their place is on the road and not in a sterile studio. And that is a very good thing about this album, which is anything but sterile.

I have my gripes with this album though. I am not that big fan of the vocals here. I feel that Jill Saward is perhaps a jazz vocalist and not a good rock vocalist. But I am not so sure if a male vocalist could had done the vocal lines on this album any better. This album does not really have any great tracks too.

The positives about this album is that the songs are overall good. Not great, but good. The songs are also full of small details well worth checking out. I am most happy when the flutes is coming in and the Jethro Tull vibes comes flying around like a cruise ship through a chimney.

And that is really what I can say about an album which for me is off the beaten track. It is a good album, but not a great one. Hence my stars.

3 stars