B, S & T 4

I got this album because I had the provious 3 they made. I was disappointed with the product after I heard it the first time. I was expecting the whole album to sound somwthing like "Go Down Gambling." It was not like that much at all.

"Go Down Gambling" was my favorite because of the guitar solo at the end. Believe it or not David Clayton Thomas played very well. I didn't know he could even play the guitar until I heard him on this. After I heard the whole album, I wondered why the band couldn't have done more of the rock oriented stuff. They put the song out on a 45 which I believed misled a lot of people who bought this album. I was thinking that "man, this set is gonna be pretty good with plenty of lead guitar to listen to." Unfortunately that wasn't the case. "Go Down Gambling" is the only one to employ a decent guitar solo on it.

There are a few noteworthy songs on this album though. "Redemption" has a great drum solo compliments of Bobby Columby. It then progs to the vocal tune and it stays upbeat throughout, with some nice solos by the horn section.

"A Look to My Heart" is moody and very well done. At the end of the album they reprise it with a much longer exploration of the main musical idea. It is well worth more than a few listens. The piano is featured here.

"Valentine's Day, John the Baptist(By Al Kooper no less), Lisa Listen to me, and Take Me in Your Arms" get an honorable mention. The whole album is well done but I don't really like the direction the band went in here. I never bought any more music from them after this.

All in all I give this one 2 stars. For what it's worth, I seriously considered giving it 3 stars at first though.