FEARLESS

For their fifth album, out goes Weider with his (sometimes irritating) violin and in comes John Wetton (from Mogul Thrash, a Colosseum offshoot) while the rest of the line-up stays put. Of all of the Family albums, this is the one I would recommend (along with their debut) for the uninitiated fan, not least because of Wetton's presence, but also because of Palmer's outstanding performances. The vinyl had a very expensive multi-layered cover revealing the successive suppositions of portraits of members and is now rather sought after among collectors.

What strikes most with this album (their most prog one IMHO) is the frequent use of keyboards - although Family never had a KB player, there was some use of keys in previous album, but not quite like in Fearless or the following Bandstand - but the use will not be systematic either. From the opening Between Blue And Me (between a superb Traffic and a manic Lennon-sung Beatles track), the ragtime-piano dominated Barfly, and passing through the GG-inspired Larf And Sing and the slightly Spaniard feel Spanish Tide (both stunning and my faves from Family along with How- Hi-The-Li), the first side of this vinyl is stupendous and almost flawless ending with Save Some For Thee (still outstanding with its big band horn section).

Starting with the mainly instrumental but funky-grooved Wetton-induced bass line Take Your Partners, the second side is of to just as good a start as its forerunner. A slightly weaker and almost sing-along Children, the vibes-lead (unfortunately underused on this album) Crinkley Grin all-too-short interlude, Blind with its bagpipe outro, and the astounding Burning Bridges (coming to some of the most tragic Traffic magic, rounds up another tour de force.

With such an excellent track-listing as this one, finding worthy bonus tracks would prove almost an impossible task and sadly so, the rough In My Own Time and the country-esque Seasons (both worthy Family tracks) do not live up to the album's high caliber and I wished so much that they be added to another album. A live rendition of the opening track and a JB Lenoir blues-folk-boogie track are the last bonuses.

Easily their best album along with their debut album, this warmly recommended to all progheads and will be an excellent introduction for beginners although please remember that Chapman's voice is an acquired taste.

John Wetton joins the Family

Way back in the 1970's, I used to play this album a lot. It is essentially a collection of pop rock songs, which are not really very progressive, but the album has a quality which I found, and still find, endearing. The arrival of John Wetton in place of John Weider meant the end of the violin interludes, but it is probably no coincidence that things appeared to be tightened up considerably.

My cassette version has the tracks in a different order to that shown here, presumably to even out the side lengths. We still open with the moody, rather heavy "Between blue and me", but this is followed by the improvisational and almost entirely instrumental "Take your partners", complete with brass section accompaniment.

"Children" is a soft Crosby Stills and Nash ("Teach your children"?) like acoustic number. "Larf and sing" sets off like a Pentangle song, the falsetto vocal sounding distinctly female. This contrasts effectively with the a-cappella harmonies of the chorus. Side one closes with the more orthodox Family number "Save some for me", one of the comparatively few songs on the album to feature Roger Chapman's traditional style of delivery.

"Sat'd'y barfly" has the feel of a Rod Stewart and the Faces number, with some dry comedy and a drunken story line. The sound is softened by the muffled brass in the background. "Spanish tide" is one of the highlights, featuring pedal steel, Spanish guitar, and the harmonised vocals of Wetton and Chapman. Wetton also gets the opportunity to sing solo on part of the verses.

"Crinkly grin" is a brief but strange instrumental interlude of under a minute, which fades just as it is getting interesting. "Blind" is probably the most progressive piece on the album, with a swirling mix of instrumentation backing a frantic Chapman vocal. The album closes with what for me is the best track, "Burning bridges". This is not the Status Quo song of the same name, but is primarily a soft, melodic, almost folk song, with medieval stringed instruments along the lines of the Strawbs "Cannon Dale".

In all, an enjoyable collection of great diversity. If I have a criticism, it is that many of the songs are not developed to their full potential. There are several songs which could have equalled "The weaver's answer" in stature, had they been fully exploited. Nevertheless, this is a fine album.

Family has never been a truly prog band IMO. They were quite different and exceptional in the proper sense of the wording. Which means out of the normal: an exception.

Even if none of their albums could claim for the masterpiece status, each of them had this so typical British flavour mostly thanks to their great front man. There are few examples of such a good band which was so much in the shadow of their leader: Roger Chapman.

For some obvious reasons (if you have read some other reviews of mine), my favourite song of this album is Spanish Tide. Indeed a very much Spanish feeling thanks to the acoustic guitar. The fantastic second part holds an incredible beat which features superb keyboards (not very common for Family to say the least).

Some songs are rocking alright and I surely include Take Your Partners as one of the best songs from Fearless. The band is showing a great ability to perform, a great cohesion and offer a fine moment of music. This feeling is totally destroyed by Children which is just a colourless tune with no texture at all. Press next, really.

Most of the surprising moments are all gone. There are little to none surprises with this album. Actually, it is an average effort: no outstanding numbers to tell the truth. This might well be a legendary band, but this is no legendary album and it features no legendary tracks.

Two stars.

While half of Mogul Thrash would reform as the Average White Band in the early seventies, John Wetton took a different route out of that group with a stint as yet another multi- instrumentalist for Family by replacing John Weider, who left to form Stud with Jim Cregan (Cregan would end up in Family himself by the time they recorded their final album). Otherwise the lineup is unchanged from their late 1970 release 'Anyway'.

This is arguably the band's 'bluesiest 'record, but also the most interesting album for the them since 'Music in a Doll's House' in 1968. That said, I'm not sure it's all that progressive but it still manages to expand at least a little on the instrumental experimentation and complex rhythmic arrangements that characterized some of their earliest and finest work. The guitar playing from Whitney and Wetton (and Chapman at times) is nearly all blues-based. But there are occasional funky riffs to break things up on songs like "Spanish Tide", which has just a bit of a Yes feel to it at times except without the exotic keyboards of Rick Wakeman or Anderson's voice (so maybe not as much like Yes as I thought when I started this sentence). Both Roger Chapman and Wetton sing, sometimes in unison, but the majority of vocal duties still fall to Chapman. His voice is a bit more restrained than on prior albums, but still quite distinctive and really helps to give the band its signature sound.

Like 'Anyway' and even more so 'It's Only a Movie', the album has its fair share of pedestrian filler as well, "Save Some for Thee" and the laconic "Children" being chief among those. And the band can't seem to avoid throwing in an unmanaged jam session as with so many of their other albums, "Take Your Partners" in this case.

Their fusion tendencies emerge from time to time, but sadly mostly on the shorter tunes like the instrumental "Crinkly Grin" and "Larf and Sing" with a bit of scat 'n chant singing along with a grooving riff from Whitney.

As with the other CD reissues this one has some bonus material, only one of which is very interesting. "In My Own Time" showcases the best days of Chapman's gruff vocals and gained the band a singles hit in 1971, while the B-side "Seasons" was appropriately relegated to the backside of that single.

This is a better album than anything that would follow, and honestly I'm not sure what happened to trigger the downward slide after this released. The band would tour the U.S. with Elton John a year later (with a much retooled lineup), but the end was already in sight and after another pair of lackluster studio releases the band called it quits.

This is a high three (out of five) star album, not quite four but I may rethink that at some point. It's definitely worth seeking out for Family fans, as well as for anyone curious about whatever it was that King Crimson heard in Wetton that appealed to them. For anyone else this is another faded and forgotten relic of the early seventies.

peace

The first thing I want this band to be remembered is their amazing debut Music in a Doll's House (1968) that mixes psychedelia, bluesy rock, pop, folk and sonic experimentalism to form a truly innovative and progressive-minded milestone album. Next albums may have elements that place Family more firmly in the prog genre, but especially in the new decade the band -- with continuous changes in their line-up -- seemed to lose the spark more and more with each album. Also the prog flavour, or as another reviewer here says, the surprising moments, decreased radically. Rather the surprises were lackluster songs toying with country music or old-fashioned entertainment vocal music. For me the least interesting albums are those following Fearless: Bandstand (1972) and It's Only a Movie (1973), after which Family called it a day.

By the way, this is the Family album that introduced ex-Mogul Thrash and soon-to-be King Crimson member John Wetton as their new bassist. Better not to expect much from that fact, though. I remember (I was 18 or 19 when I bought a cheapie vinyl pairing of Fearless & It's Only a Movie) being disappointed in this sense, having just found King Crimson and Wetton's marvelous contributions in it. He's not credited in song-writing here; apart from a couple of tracks written by keyboardist Poli Palmer, all songs are by vocalist Roger Chapman and guitarist John "Charlie" Whitney, as usual.

The opener 'Between Blue and Me' has nice dynamics between the calm, acoustic start and the ballsier approach centering on Whitney's mean guitar. 'Sat'd'y Barfly' is a tongue-in-cheek saloon song in which tuba, clearly attempting to sound humorous, is criminally overused. 'Larf and Sing' is among the highlights in all its lightness, and in the amusing chorus also Wetton's voice is heard, as well as in the more rocking 'Spanish Tide' that has good-sounding electric piano & harpsichord parts. 'Save Some for Thee' is a totally unimpressive filler. 'Take Your Partners' starts as very funky and contains inspired jam-like playing. Not a great song per se, but it's full of jazz rock energy, joined by Chapman's raspy vocals.

'Children' is a brief, simple and sincere acoustic song, pretty warm-hearted actually. Palmer-penned 'Crinkley Grin' is a vibraphone-centred one-minute instrumental with a slight Gentle Giant feel. A pity it wasn't worked to its full potential. 'Blind' is another mediocrity, again there are some interesting details in the arrangement but they can't hide away the composition's weakness. The best is fortunately saved for last. Dark-toned vocals and atmospheric guitars & keyboards make 'Burning Bridges' the strongest track on the album. Easy Livin' associates it with Strawbs ('Cannon Dale') and I agree.

Fearless is indeed quite uneven, but not as weak as I remembered. That makes three stars so and so.

The third period of the Family opens with the arrival of John Wetton on bass, and the abandonment of John Weider, whose violin had greatly influenced the two previous albums. Fearless is the masterpiece of the maturity of the Family, in the name of an eclectic creative art-rock that however can rightfully be considered progressive rock. The first side is simply fantastic: five songs one more beautiful than the other.

1) Between blue and me (vote 8+): rock ballad with before sweet and then powerful singing of Chapman (wonderful), and electric guitar sound. 2) Sat'd'y Barfly (vote 7,5): second song with eccentric arrangement, grotesque mood, with the brass to make the melody. 3) Larf and Sing (vote 8): short song with the vibraphone, sung in falsetto, progressive rock choirs: Beautiful. 4) Spanish Tide (vote 9): masterpiece of the album, for what can be considered a mini-suite of 4 minutes, alternating tender moments, acceleration funk rock, renaissance melody painted with Spanish guitar; the singing pass through delicate moments (Chapman) , grit soul (Wetton) and hard rock power (both). 5) Save Some For Three (vote 7,5/8): like the second track, it has an exuberant band arrangement, but in the middle there is a beautiful melody, carved by the voice of Chapman.

End of a first side full of creativity and musical arrangements with endless inventions.

6) Take Your Partners (vote 8): it opens the second side with a new electronic sound: the synthesizer is in the foreground for the whole song, and weaves its warp with many variations on the theme, leading the song over 6 minutes. It seems to hear a different record from that of the first side, but when the voice of Chapman and the percussions arrive, we find the identity of the Family, which ends with a high volume, pyrotechnical end.

7) Children and 8) Crinkly Green (vote 6,5) are two brief tracks. Perhaps to breathe a sigh after the sound orgasm of the previous song, two acoustic moments arrive, the lightweight but very simple ballad called Children, and the instrumental piece by Palmer with the vibraphone. Overall they are 3 minutes of simplicity detached from the highly sophisticated art-rock arrangements of all the other songs. Despite being the weakest moments of the Lp, qualitatively lower than the other pieces, in the economy of the whole record these two tracks do not disfigure. 9) Blind (vote 7,5): very loud rock song with hoarse singing, and ending with bagpipes. Great creativity. 10) Burning Bridges (vote 8+): Fantastic ending with a melodically beautiful song, with a wonderful sound of guitars, very atmospheric, with hypnotic renaissance tones and then with the voice of Chapman to embellish everything.

Fearless is a small masterpiece (with a great song in place of Children could become an absolute masterpiece) halfway between art-rock and progressive-rock, which highlights the enormous inventiveness and originality in the songwriting and arrangements of the Chapman -Whitney duo, who have never embraced a specific musical genre and have always moved according to their creativity and inspiration regardless of any boundaries.

Medium quality: 7,86. Vote: 9. Five stars.