I feel like I owe reader Joe Temborious an apology.<\/p>\n
You see, Joe has been a loyal reader almost from the beginning.
\nHis suggestion gave me the kick in the kiester I needed to post the
\ncomplete listing of albums we’ve reviewed here. Every once in a
\nwhile, Joe will e-mail me a suggestion, almost as if to keep me on
\nmy toes.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, Joe e-mailed me with another suggestion: Robin
\nTrower’s 1974 release
\nBridge Of Sighs<\/i>. Fortunately, he sent his request days
\nbefore I went to my favorite used record store for their annual
\nmega-sale. I was able to snag a copy of
\nBridge Of Sighs<\/i> for a whopping 20 cents. But after repeated
\nlistens to this album, not only do I think I overpaid, but I’m
\nafraid I’m going to anger Joe to the point of turning to a site
\nlike Mr. Showbiz.<\/p>\n
Trower was an influential member of the British band Procol
\nHarum, and played on their first and biggest hit “A Whiter Shade Of
\nPale.” (Trivia question: Who was the original guitarist whom Trower
\nreplaced? Answer – Ray Royer.) According to
\nRolling Stone<\/i>, Trower made his influence in the band known
\non albums like
\nHome<\/i>, taking the band into a harder-edged direction. (I
\ncan’t vouch for this, as I have yet to add these releases to the
\nPierce Memorial Archives.) In 1971, Trower left the band,
\neventually forming a power trio.<\/p>\n
But one would expect Trower to be a more powerful guitarist – he
\nhas been described as Hendrix-influenced – than he really is. His
\nguitar riffs tend to be a combination of blues and jazz, though he
\ncan’t decide which he wants his music to really be. The songs
\nthemselves have a bit of a blues flavor to them, Bassist\/vocalist
\nJames Dewar sounds a bit like Chris Farlowe, and his bass work is
\nsolid enough. Drummer Reg Isidore provides a decent, though
\nunder-powered, backbeat.<\/p>\n
And some of the songs do have a bit of bite to them, like “The
\nFool And Me”. And Joe’s favorite track, “Day Of The Eagle,” is
\ndecent enough. However, while Trower may have tried to influence
\nProcol Harum’s sound, it turns out that Procol Harum ends up
\ninfluencing Trower’s sound – perhaps this is because former Procol
\nHarum keyboardist Matthew Fisher produced this album. I wish I
\ncould say this influence is a welcome addition – when Trower and
\ncrew drag out the songs, like on “Too Rolling Stoned,” the end
\nresult is quite weakened.<\/p>\n
What could have helped? First, Trower needed some muscle behind
\nhis guitar riffs. He tends to downgrade his role in the band and
\nlet the music speak for itself – bad move. Second, Trower needed to
\nspeed things up a bit. When the tempo is increased, like on “The
\nFool And Me,” Trower is able to keep the listener interested. When
\nthings slow down, they tend to become introspective messes. Third,
\nTrower needs to find a way to make the music more interesting –
\nthis is kind of related to my last point. Finally, ditch the
\nunrecognizable album covers – what the fuck
\nis<\/i> that supposed to be?<\/p>\n
I guess if you’re into Procol Harum or art-rock, you’ll get more
\nout if
\nBridge Of Sighs<\/i> than I did. And it’s not that I don’t listen
\nto art-rock on a regular basis – keep an eye out for a review of
\nYes later this week. Maybe this album would have meant something to
\nme in 1974. It just does nothing for me.<\/p>\n
Sorry, Joe – the thrills of being a rock music critic means I’ll
\neventually anger everyone I come in contact with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5820],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-35721","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-robin-trower","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35721"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35721"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}