Book of Taliesyn

[Zzzptm]

So how does this album play? Compared to the first, it opens much more powerfully with that great title track. Ian Paice's drumming really drives it forward and the aggression in the backing track foreshadows the fireworks that will come out on "Speed King". There's a lot less classical faffing about and the D&D lyrics aren't bad, either.

"Hard Road" ("Wring That Neck" in Europe... why the name difference? Huh...) keeps the energy going as a basic blues framework around the soloists Jon and Ritchie. It's definitely much more comfortable country to work in for Blackmore and Lord seems to do just fine without having to make a classical allusion, so that's good news for sure.

"Kentucky Woman" is Deep Purple trying to be the Monkees again, covering a Neil Diamond song. They do a great job on it, and that clap track makes it a fun, fun song. But it's not the way forward for this band. It *is* something Blackmore gets back to when he steers Rainbow towards the great lighthouse of pop, but it's not where this band needs to go. Lord's solo in the middle contrasts with the general pop of the song. It's much harder and doesn't really seem to belong in the tune, like it should go with some other song.

We then get "Exposition / We Can Work It Out." Ugh. There's that heavy-handed classical intro. Thankfully, Ian Paice and Nick Simper remember what worked for Vince Taylor's "Brand New Cadillac" and lay down a hard-driving rhythm that gets it going. Listening to Lord's solos and lead on the organ, one can hear Russian Romanticism in there. It's fine, really, so long as the beat backs it up. Ritchie's guitar then takes over for the Beatles cover and we get some more DP-as-Monkees.

I notice that I've focused on Paice/Lord/Blackmore in my comments, along with Simper. That tells a story in and of itself - Rod Evans is a good singer, but he's not *great*. He's not really adding a lot to the enjoyment of the songs and is kind of a distraction from what the rest of the band's up to. You know Blackmore can't be happy with that... wheels are turning in his head, but success in the US means putting a priority on making that money before making changes in the lineup.

Side Two opens up with "Shield". It's kind of Steely Dan meets Jethro Tull... an odd little tune with an interesting rhythm. This be a prog song, for sure. And the atonal elements just irritate, makes me wonder why they're there and why Derek Lawrence didn't re-do that track. Oh well, at least he knew what he was doing when he produced Wishbone Ash, so that's a good thing, I guess. Lord reprises the groove from "Hush" as Blackmore solos and that works out nicely, but again we're dealing with the lyric part being a distraction from the instrumental jamming. This is a classic case of "musical differences". I'm thinking if Dio had been the singer here, it would have been a monster track.

Speaking of material I'd rather hear Dio sing, there's the next track, "Anthem".  Evans can do a beautiful lyric, but he's way more of a pop voice than a metal voice on this album. I can imagine Dio singing this song and it would work so much better with his style and delivery. But Dio ain't here, so we need to try to make things work with Rod Evans, don't we? And the irony is that Evans does so well with Captain Beyond... his vocals there really gel with the rest of the band, I don't get it why they didn't work out as well here as they did there. Was it the producer? The label reps? The band not really knowing what it wanted to be or do?

Last track is another big pretentious classical opening for a pop cover. How "Also Sprach Zarathustra" connects to "River Deep, Mountain High", I don't know. Thankfully, the band does actual rock during the intro, but it's going to wing back to the classical stuff before doing the song proper. Evans finally shows up to the party and starts to belt things out like a proper rocker, but it's too late in the album for him to start really bringing it all together with the band. And, honestly, the selection of material... that's got to have an impact on what you can really do with the tune. As with the opening track, there are pieces of "Speed King" just trying to get out, you can hear them, but they're kept bound by the limits of the song and the lack of a vocalist that can unleash the full potential.

Instrumentally wonderful in parts, but vocally disappointing. This band is going to go for one more spin on the album front, but it'll be done while half the band is secretly rehearsing with another vocalist...