KEEP YER 'AND ON IT

I listen to this a couple of times and straightaway I notice something which I have noticed with the Jefferson Airplane which later on became Jefferson Starship then Starship. Both String Driven Thing and Jefferson Airplane start with very original cutting-edge rock compositions. As time unfolds probably due to pressure from record companies/management and/or an inner desire/pressure to get a hit they stray to the middle of the road and become full AOR.

Now at this point in both cases many listeners leave the building feeling slightly cheated. Personally in both cases I feel nothing of the sort. I agree the compositions are very pedestrian here on this album but the execution is purely of very high quality musicianship of people at the top of their game

Again I insist I see this as well in Starship and I love those albums they have strong qualities not original but excellent musicianship and flow. The only exception here as it is indeed very creative altho it is a Cover of a Beatles track Which has a very psychedelic undertone/overtone/tone arrangement and is truly brilliant ... Byrds-flavoured

Is it a masterpiece album? Hell no but it is so competent and so easy to listen to yes easy listening / AOR/ MOR

If you feel those are dirty words stay away otherwise very enjoyable And yes you will be excused from thinking that you are listening to an album by Steely Dan it really sounds uncannily like them more than once :-) or the flippin' Eagles ... what would The Dude say? by the mid-70s many British acts wanted a slice of the US AOR pie and would bend over backwards to achieve that ... Exhibit 412 here

ps "Ways of a Woman" is one MOR bridge too far tho for this listener .... we are in Chris De Burgh realm here ....

ps2 took me ages to realize the title was "keep your hand on it" and that the photo on the sleeve was a hand squeezing "a tube of toothpaste" .... but subtlety always passes me by :)