Label: Island Records (Japan), UICY-93640
Style: Psychedelic Rock
Country: Birmingham, UK
Time: 51:09
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 164 Mb
TRAFFIC's
debut is one of the more neglected gems of the British psychedelia,
probably due to the fact it never scored a hit in America, at least in
the format it was released in UK. But it is a masterpiece of songwriting
and eclecticism in its own right.
Winwood, Capaldi, Mason and Wood
created an amazing album of seemingly different influences and approach.
Psychedelic keyboards, hard guitar solo a la CREAM, British folk and
music-hall, jazz paranoia and Indian raga with overall Winwood's soulful
voice make an album that can be enjoyed over and over. Mason gives
important musical component with his guitar, bass and sitar, offering
one of the best raga moments in rock music, "Utterly Simple", which
beats the Fab Four's "Within You, Without You" by and large IMO. Each
song has its place on this mature record, but the title track -
allegedly drug-influenced imagination - "Dear Mr. Fantasy" (which was to
be honoured by such giants as THE GRATEFUL DEAD on their last official
live set "Without a Net" in 1989), beautiful flute ballad "No Face, No
Name, No Number", and "Coloured Rain" with distinguished Wood's
saxophone are the highlights. One can notice that the peculiar sound of
TRAFFIC, with dominating organ, piano and woodwinds (sax and flute) and
with ever diminishing presence of lead guitar and bass guitar, makes it a
sort of precursor of the acts like VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR, albeit
coming from different attitude: VDGG were always more avant-garde and
"classically" influenced than TRAFFIC, who sticked with R'n'B, folk and
jazz scheme. However, Wood's saxophone at certain moments sounds almost
as crazy as Dave Jaxon's!
This is a wonderful album, keeping in mind
that this review refers to the original UK version, that is one of true
"proto-progressive" rock albums of the great period 1967- 69, worth
investigating by any serious fan of this genre.
(progarchives.com/album.asp?id=7040) Review by Seyo. February 14, 2006
01. Heaven Is in Your Mind (04:16)
02. Berkshire Poppies (02:55)
03. House for Everyone (02:05)
04. No Face, No Name, No Number (03:35)
05. Dear Mr. Fantasy (05:44)
06. Dealer (03:34)
07. Utterly Simple (03:16)
08. Coloured Rain (02:43)
09. Hope I Never Find Me There (02:12)
10. Giving to You (04:20)
Bonus tracks:
11. Paper Sun (Bonus track) (04:15)
12. Giving to You (Bonus Track) (04:12)
13. Hole in My Shoe (Bonus Track) (02:54)
14. Smiling Phases (Bonus track) (02:43)
15. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (Bonus Track) (02:18)
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