Review Summary: Early 70s British Prog-rock at its best
Fuzzy Duck. A cool name and an even cooler album cover (if you consider this was done 40 years ago). Unfortunately, this is another band out of the many of the era that released just a single album and then disappeared from the scene. Relying heavily on the sound of the Hammond organ, their self-titled album had all the elements to please the lovers of the genre, thus representing worthily the British prog rock scene of the 70s. Mick Hawksworth (bass) and co. disbanded just 18 months after forming the band leaving some of us wondering why this highly-potential band didn’t stand the test of time.
Generally speaking, this is an album full of groovy parts and energetic tempo changes. You can sense this as soon as the inaugural notes of ‘’Time Will Be Your Doctor’’ get to your ears. As it unfolds you understand that this one is in the elite of the good songs of the album. From a technical perspective I think ‘’Mrs. Prout’’ is one of the highlights over here. The way the band converts from a jazzy rhythmic section to a progressive one is amazing. What makes it special is the instrumental pandemonium that starts half-way through the song and continues with some magnificent jamming from everyone’s part.
‘’More Than I Am’’ was the song I distinguished most during my first listening of the album. A cool guitar riff, an extremely catchy organ melody and a memorable chorus are the easiest things for someone to point out. Clearly it could be the optimal choice for a single. ‘’Country Boy’’ is a decent, melodic and rhythmic song in here. What makes it more interesting though is that sudden cut of the groove and the slow tempo that the song falls into afterwards, a characteristic that Jimmy Page used a lot in Zep’s songs. Then the song builds up speed and before you realize it you are back again following the opening melody but this time with some bad-ass organ solo accompanying. Pure excellence.
In terms of the average songs, ‘’Just Look Around’’ seemed to me that the only nice characteristic of it was the chorus, one of the catchiest in the whole album. In this category I would also include ‘’In Our Time’’ with that somehow-differential instrumental part and lastly ‘’Afternoon Out’’ which didn’t move me at all. The band chooses to close the album with an instrumental called ‘’A Word from Big D’’, and what an innovative and rare way they have chosen to do it: a prolific jamming with the sounds/effects of a duck accompanying the music just to add to the whole ‘’duck’’ theme.
