FIRST BASE

This was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a straight up Hard Rock album with Janis Joplin- like vocals but I got much more than that. Lots of keyboards here and they also have several guests on here playing congas, bongos, kabasa, sax, aboe and cello. I like the way the songs are extended as well, with the average track length being 7 minutes.

"Wells Fargo" kicks in fairly quickly and the vocals come in before a minute. Sax a minute later. Nice guitar solo after 3 minutes then the sax retrurns around 5 minutes. A catchy tune. "The Runaways" is pastoral with aboe early as reserved vocals join in. Strings are added too. I like when the vocals stop and we get this long instrumental section as they just seem to jam the rest of the way. "King Kong" is an instrumental that opens with the bass, guitar and drums standing out. Keyboards join in. It's building after 2 1/2 minutes then settles back. The guitar starts to solo tastefully before 4 minutes. It's building again before 5 minutes.

"Black Dog" is laid back with vocals to start. It picks up some 2 minutes in, then a full sound follows with drums, piano and bass standing out. Vocals are back after 4 minutes with guitar and they both shine the rest of the way,especially late. "The Mexican" has this catchy beat with some prominant bass. Vocals and guitar come in. A Spanish flavour to this one. "Joker" is more straight forward sounding and my least favourite. Keyboards and percussion to open as heavy guitar comes in followed by male and female vocals. The guitar takes the lead 2 minutes in. She gets pretty theatrical at times.

A low 4 stars but man this is a good album.