Peter Frampton began his long career as an ace guitar player\u2014a role that won him notice in first The Herd and then Humble Pie\u2014who only gradually blossomed into an accomplished singer-songwriter. The most distinctive characteristic of Frampton\u2019s very British style of blues-rock has always been his superb guitar work, whether the song is light and acoustic or heavy and electric.<\/p>\n
Three albums into his nascent solo career, though, Frampton had barely made a ripple on the charts and was likely feeling some urgency from his label. The result, 1974\u2019s Frampton<\/i>, both drew broader notice than its predecessors and teed up his true breakthrough, 1976\u2019s iconic live double album Frampton Comes Alive<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Frampton<\/i>\u2019s opener \u201cDay\u2019s Dawning\u201d is characteristic of his early solo work: good-natured, workmanlike, skillfully played and somewhat interchangeable. The same could be said about roughly half this album; \u201cOne More Time,\u201d \u201cThe Crying Clown,\u201d \u201cFanfare\u201d and \u201cApple of Your Eye\u201d are all pleasant, inoffensive album tracks that amble along without making a big impression.<\/p>\n
The other half of the album, though, was gold.<\/p>\n
The first thing you notice listening to the original studio version of future hit single \u201cShow Me The Way\u201d is that even on solo album number four, Frampton\u2019s lead vocals remained a work in progress. He feels tentative at the mic in places here, as opposed to the sunny confidence of the better-known live version. The way they handle the chorus is instructive\u2014in the studio, they double-track his vocals for extra punch, but onstage, without that crutch to lean on, he accomplishes the same effect with pure vocal power\u2014part of the reason the song has much more life and bounce on Alive<\/i>. That said, \u201cShow Me The Way\u201d is a virtual cascade of hooks, a hit single-in-waiting lacking only the right performance to make it happen.<\/p>\n
The other thing that seemed to catch some listeners by surprise on Alive<\/i> is how hard Frampton was capable of rocking. On Frampton<\/i>, the thrumming \u201cNowhere\u2019s Too Far (For My Baby)\u201d offers all of the necessary evidence: a pumping beat propelling a series of fat electric hooks, capped by a sweet romantic affirmation. Closer \u201c(I\u2019ll Give You) Money\u201d doubles down on much of the above with a thundering electric blues jam that grinds and blusters like it just fell out of Jimmy Page\u2019s notebook.<\/p>\n
The other future hit premiered here, \u201cBaby, I Love Your Way,\u201d is paired with an introductory piano instrumental called \u201cNassau,\u201d which is fine but slight. Once you get to the main event, \u201cBaby, I Love Your Way\u201d seamlessly layers acoustic and electric guitars for a rich melodic bed under the earnest entreaties that would cause many a swoon in the years ahead. (A more successful instrumental features later: the studio version of Alive<\/i>\u2019s acoustic guitar showcase \u201cPenny For Your Thoughts,\u201d sprightly and superb as ever.)<\/p>\n
Frampton<\/i> was the man\u2019s first hit album in the US, reaching the Top 40 and going gold. While it\u2019s undeniable that the best songs it contains can all be heard in even better live versions on Alive<\/i>, Frampton<\/i> remains the strongest of the original quartet of solo albums that made up most of the former\u2019s track list. As such, it\u2019s both an intriguing musical artifact and a signpost pointing upward toward the heights its author would soon achieve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5954],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-47118","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-peter-frampton","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47118","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47118"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}