I have a wholly irrational response to this record. For one thing, that first minute of Freedom Rider probably knocks this up a whole point in my book. That sick, Danger Mouse-ready beat, that thudump bass kick, that thin, soaring Winwood vocal line, you keep looking for that kind of legit funk banging on the rest of the album. But even by the end of the song, the novelty wears off, and its clear the band is more or less out of ideas.
Elsewhere the jams are unfocused, unimaginatively recorded and produced, and listenable without being exciting. And yet, on the whole, it is strange and strangely compelling. Its a legitimate infusion of jazzy sentiment into rock, and while I try to take what's on the disc as it is, the fact that this came out in 1970, just as funk was getting rolling, keeps it from feeling too derivative.
I think maybe this sucks (and the title track, which goes all goddamn folk on you, almost certainly does), but I kind of like it anyway 3.5/5
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