Album Rating: 1.5
This is a deeply flawed album, imo. "White Room", "Deserted Cities" and "Those Were The Days" are all major highlights. The blues covers would be excellent, were it not for the fact that Bruce's (or is it Clapton?) vocal performances is completely off the hard, tough and heavy mood the song sets. What really drags the album down, though, is the failed experimentation. "Passing The Time" doesn't go anywhere. The three different sections are completely unrelated (Eastern intro, poppy ballad/mellow tune, frenzied interlude) and are sloppily connected (I mean, excuse me, a fade out/in?). Even worse, only the rock-out part qualifies as emotionally captivating. The rest is too short (intro) or artificial (the poppy "quiet" part).
Next, "As You Said" is just annoying thanks to the out-of-tune violins and its only place in history will be that of the track that influenced the far superior "Friends" by Zeppelin. "Rat And The Warhog" just sucks, period. Spoken-poetry on top of music should not be a thing, ever. Plus, both or them don't generate any kind of real emotion to me. "Politician" has a superbly written riff, but Jack Bruce annoys the hell out of me. Not only was a vocal part wasn't needed for this riff, it doesn't tie to the riff at all and Bruce does his best to emphasize every single word. Fuck. Jack. Bruce. In. This. Song. Only. He. Is. Great. Generally. You. Know.
Where was I? Ah, yes, the live album is good. Not one of the greatest of all time blah blah, but good, with only Toad spoiling, naturally, the picture. Captivating soloing, vocals and energy on the rest, even if they do go on forever.
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