GHOSTS

Like their previous album, "Hero & Heroine", "Ghosts" is the second and last with the lineup of Cousins, Lambert, Cronk, Coombs and Hawken, the latter of which left after this album after Cousins wanted to do yet another shift in their style which proved to be a big mistake as their popularity began a slow sink. Hawken had gone from being a piano only player to having to embrace synths and the mellotron and ended up loving the sound.

These 2 albums mark the pinnacle of their harder rock prog era. While the other 4 would carry on for a few more albums, they never captured the same sound. By the time "Bursting At The Seams" came out in 1973, some of their UK audience began to slip and they started having better success in North America. "Hero & Heroine" did great in the US and it went platinum in Canada so it made sense to hit gold again and they did so with this album. I like "Hero & Heroine" for many reasons but it is like they tightened up their grip and the band sounds like they were in sync.

I like the electric guitar sound that is unique to Strawbs and Dave Lambert really starts showing his stuff on the title track "Ghosts" where he shared lead vocals with Cousins and what I believe is his best guitar solo. This is a great prog songs with a few shifts. That was a great start and the next track "Lemon Pie" is a better pop track and more appropriate for this albums than many of the pop songs on "Hero & Heroine". "Starshine / Angel Wine" I have no real opinion on and "Where Do You Go" is a good song. Side 2 starts out with what I consider the best Strawbs song ever, "The Life Auction." The hard hitting instrumental "chorus" if you will is a great riff and it is a rocker as well as prog heavy.

Lambert's "Don't Try To Change Me" is another great song that is good like "It's Just Love" off "Hero & Heroine." The final tracks are the softer ones one would expect from Strawbs' folkish side. I wish they would have ended with another solid harder song. Incidentally this lineup would come back in 2004 and release "Déjà Fou" which is pretty decent. These people definitely were the hardest rocking version of Strawbs and this album "Ghosts" is solid!