FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

Family Entertainment is the second album from british rock act Family. I was really impressed with the debut album from Family called Music In A Doll's House from 1968. It´s a great psychadelic and eclectic rock album that falls under the catagory mildy progressive. With this second album Family has moved away from the psychadelic tendencies which were a big part of their sound on Music In A Doll's House. Family Entertainment is a much more polished and commercial effort.

Family´s music is not easily put into a catagory. It contains elements from both rock, jazz, blues, classical music and folk/ country. A truly eclectic band. One of the biggest assets on this album is Roger Chapman´s vocals which I find very charming and powerful. He has a very raw voice and he would have made a great hard rock vocalist. This fact is very evident in the only hard rocking track on the album Second Generation Woman, which by the way is a bit out of place IMO. Most songs on the album are pretty good and a few are above average. I like Observations From A Hill and the instrumental Summer ´67 while some of the more folk/ country elements that also sneak into some of the songs are not that interesting to me. The eclectic approach to music reminds me a bit of another british band called Audience.

The musicianship is one of the greatest assets on the album. Great violin and sax playing, but the rythm section also prove themselves throughout the album.

The production is very polished compared to the raw debut. It will be an aquired taste if this is something you´ll appreciate. Personally I prefer the raw sound of the debut.

Family Entertainment is a good album but I do miss the raw approach that was so enjoyable on the debut and for me Family Entertainment is a 3 star album. Family is still an intriguing band though and I´ll be looking forward to reviewing the rest of their discography.