HAS ANYONE HERE SEEN SIGFRIED?

Has Anyone Here Seen Sigfried? is a reissue of the band's notorious third album that was supposed to have been released in the late 70's but unfortunately didn't see the light of day due to disbandment of the band and label difficulties. The album was in fact released as a bootleg under the name Third and in some cases The St. Louis Hounds, featuring a picture of the actual Pavlov's Dog, but it wasn't until 2007 that the record would get an official release by the German label Rockville Music. Titled Has Anyone Here Seen Sigfried?, this new version of the album is a lot more polished than the previous bootlegs and features additional 10 bonus tracks of unreleased material from the 70's.

I just so happen to own a copy of the bootleg version of the album that was re-released in the 80's and after reading a few positive reviews of this official release finally decided to give it a few spins on Spotify just to see how it compares to the bootleg. My original hypothesis was that Has Anyone Here Seen Sigfried? would be just as disappointing as the bootleg release, since the main problem with this album is the songwriting and not the sound quality. Hence, even the improved mastering won't fix a record that is flawed in the songwriting department.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't manage to disprove my hypothesis and gave up after only two spins. This is pretty much the same album as Third and even the bonus tracks, most of which being alternate versions of tracks from the band's two first releases, aren't enough to make this release worth a purchase. The version that is available on Spotify in Europe is actually very different from the one that is listed here since the track order on the first CD is switched and features a studio outtake titled Stop Short. The second CD is comprised of live renditions of these and other classic Pavlov's Dog tracks from the 2011/2012 reunion gigs. It's definitely nothing that I would recommend, please read my review of the 2011 live album Live And Unleashed if you want to know more.

The only real surprise this time around was the track Painted Ladies. I didn't like it too much on the bootleg version but it does sound much better here due to a much more prominent guitar lead track. I still think that the two minute song Suicide is easily the highlight of the album and it's a pity that this songs was not included on the band's second album since it would have fused so well with the rest of the band's material from 1975-76 era.

I'm sure that fans of Pavlov's Dog will purchase this release just so they can own a good sounding copy of the band's third album but that's pretty much everything that this release got going for it.

***** star songs: Suicide (2:03)

**** star songs: Good Bye Trafalger (3:27) I Love You Still (4:06) Painted Ladies (3:19)

*** star songs: Falling In Love (3:24) Only You (4:31) Jenny (4:09) Today (3:05) Stop Short (2:38) It's All For You (3:50) While You Were Out (2:51)