HOLD YOUR FIRE

Patto's second album, Hold Your Fire album comes with two artworks, the one you're seeing here and a green & purple artwork but both are ugly anyway. This second effort may strike as straighter rock than their JR/F debut, but when listened to carefully it still comes with plenty of with plenty of jazz vibes.

Compared with the debut album, Mike Patto's voice is more dominant in this album as his raspy Stewart/Rodgers vocals were often what the RnR crowds were looking for. Starting with the rolling title track, somewhere between a Rolling Stone romp (circa Sticky Fingers) and a Jeff Beck Group (with Cozy Powell on drums), it gives the tone of the album. If it wasn't for Halsall's expert guitars, we could often be on a Stones or Faces album. BUT there is Halsall's masterful guitars that makes the difference, even when the man is also playing piano on the same track. The following Point Your Finger is a much quieter affair, even if the lyrics are definitely setting points to detractors. Around the same sonic point, we're dealing with the blues & jazz-inflected guitar of Olie on How's Your Father, where both his piano (sometimes resembling Nicky Hopkins') and guitars shine out over a fairly average songwriting effort. The side-closing See You At The Dance is a good ol' rnr track where Patto's voice dominates.

The flipside's opener is mo less a rocking Give It Al Away and the midway solo reminds me of Jeff Beck's group (Middleton-Powell), with Griffith's inspired bass work in the semi-funky mode Where You've been is again right in the Stones/Free/JBG/Faces area. Only Air Raid Shelter differs quite a it and takes a careless Hendrix twist, but once the track gets going, the improvs are definitely veering into jazz frames. Being the longest track of the album with its 7-minutes, it is also the track that lets the instruments at their freest, while the closing Magic Door starts out very jazzy, but the chorus is actually quite annoying, some finding it maybe a good hook, but this writer finding it plain boring. Halsall's vibe playing saves this track and gives it its much-needed jazz flavour.

Almost as good as the debut album, but minus the surprise of the debut, HYF is an interesting album for those wanting to hear raw guitar jams with raw accompaniment, but I wouldn't call this album anymore essential than its predecessor.

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