WISHBONE ASH

ARGUS has been widely celebrated as Wishbone Ash's triumph creatively and commercially, and it's a logical starting point for anyone interested in the band. For those curious enough to go for anything else in their discography as I did, their self-titled debut is a decent place to continue.

The content of the music here is rich in blues-rock soundscapes that utilize the twin guitar approach of Andy Powell and Ted Turner (not that other Ted Turner). The band sounds tamer than Led Zeppelin and not as evil sounding as Black Sabbath, so that may explain why Wishbone Ash may have been left behind in the rock world.

The first half of the album is more or less straight blues-rock song after blues-rock song with the opening cut ''Blind Eye'' having a noticeable shuffle rhythm to it (and an uncredited piano performance). They're all really good tracks with ''Queen of Torture'' being very fiery, and ''Errors of My Ways'' does well as a moving ballad type of song.

The second half is just two epics. The first, ''Handy'', sounds like a lack-of-structure blues jam centring around an uninteresting bass solo. There's a rub at the end when the band goes pure rock-n-roll for almost no reason. ''Phoenix'' does a much better job in the epic department in that it has this progressive climb effect to it. It doesn't hurt to lead the listener down different avenues of adventure in the instrumental sections.

Pure, simple blues based rock music. That is WISHBONE ASH the album in a nutshell.