Cricklewood Green by Ten Years After

When Ten Years After released Cricklewood Green, most British albums and nearly all American albums suffered from thin production values that made the albums sound as if they were playing back from far away or through a five cent speaker. But not this one! Ten Years After finally found a room (Olympic Studios) and a producer (Glyn Johns, as I recall) who together worked to make the fattest, punchiest and most intense album ever to issue from Alvin Lee & Company. Alvin is at his best here -- even better than the more commercially successful 'Space In Time' that came a few years later. But this one's the band at their peak. Chick Churchill's organ work is the perfect bed to hold together the rythym section section of Leo Lyons (bass) and Ric Lee (drums and no relation to Alvin). This album is the way that Ten Years After sounded live. Some of the songs from their subsequent album 'Ssshh!' sounded as they did live -- as did a few from 'A Space in Time' and 'Rock n Roll Music to the World.' But for pure TYA fans who loved the way they came out on stage and tore down the house, this is the one to get! Not only is it the best reflection of a great band at its performance peak, they were also at their best in their choice of material also. These are songs that are just as vicious and brutal today as they were when they first ripped the radiowaves back in early 1970. 'Sugar the Road' and 'Working on the Road' are still some of the quintessential TYA tracks -- as are the more mystic '50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain' and 'As the Sun Still Burns Away.' Even the mellower 'Circles' is a beautiful counterpoint to the rest of the album -- as is the swinging blues of 'Me and My Baby.' This album is a testament to the power of the Marshall Amplifer! Cricklewood Green' is, for the most part, a bombastic rockfest. In fact, the three tune, fifteen minute opening salvo stack up nicely against any other trio of songs from any rock and roll disc. But any album aspiring to greatness must demonstrate diversity, and 'Cricklewood Green' does that as well, although I could have lived with the rockfest through a double-album of this electrifying material! In my mind of minds I imagine Alvin Lee felt the same, and included songs such as 'Year 3000 Blues', the lone country-rock number in the set, and 'Me and My Baby' a Steve Miller sound-alike track and the lone jazz-rock number, simply to show everyone that Ten Years After was much more than a one-genre pony. As if that wasn't enough, one other genre is also explored with the acoustic folk-rock number titled 'Circles', which adds more than just diversity. The sweet chorus, "Doesn't/does it matter what I do..." mixes with the bittersweet sentiments and smooth-as-a-smoothie melody to produce what we in the music review business call 'a beaute'. The remainder of the disc builds on the solid rock foundation established by the band in four previous albums. The two longest tracks on the disc are epics in composition and performance. Both '50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain' and 'Love Like a Man' time out at 7:37. I would believe that was an uncanny coincidence were it not for the curious fade out-fade in-fade out conclusion to '50,000 Miles...' ℗ 2017 Chrysalis Records Limited