LAST AUTUMN'S DREAM

Jade Warrior is a unique and interesting British band that started out in the early 70's. Their self-titled debut album had shown some promise but it was still somewhat immature and their second album was a real plodder filled with anonymous and, in my opinion, rather dull Santana-like Latin Jazz-Rock. Here, however, on the group's third album, it all came together for them for the first time. Last Autumn's Dream was in many ways Jade Warrior's peak of the early part of the band's career. It was with this album that they finally managed to pull off what they had only attempted before. The development of their own early sound culminated here and they somehow realized their own musical identity. They also achieved a good balance in terms of different moods, tempos and levels of intensity that makes for a varied yet cohesive album that remains interesting till the end. There are a couple of mistakes though and Joanne and Demon Trucker are the two I'm primarily thinking of here. These two tracks are rather clumsy Hard Rock numbers with lyrics full of clichés. Still, they are not worse than the worst songs from the previous two albums and besides they are short and far enough apart not to bring the album down as a whole.

Admittedly, some parts of this album are a bit raw and the production is not the best in comparison with subsequent albums. But on the quieter moments the sound is pure and points towards what they would do on their next album, Floating World. For that next album, Jade Warrior turned away somewhat from the eclectic and experimental 70's Rock found here and took on more of a New-Age and World-Music approach. The World-Music influences had been present in the band's sound from the start however, and on this album these influences rub shoulders with Jazz, Blues and guitar-based Psychedelic Rock influences to make an appealing mixture. Lots of nice flutes and percussions mixed with more traditional Rock elements to great effect.

If you are looking to investigate Jade Warrior, Last Autumn's Dream is a good place to start and certainly the best of their early period (first three albums).

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