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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Halfbreed - Halfbreed (UK 1975)

Whats Hot On The Roddus Stereo.





This is my first album review here on BlogRoddus, and considering the amount of new stuff that has been massarging my ears latley, it has been difficult to decide where to start, as time is too short to review them all at once and I am new to all this reviewing stuff, so please forgive my illiteracy in the discription department.
I have finally decided to review the latest rare and obscure post I have downloaded from my friend Chuntao's Blog RAREMP3 Music. Hallfbreed's self titled album from 1975.
I can find very little infomation about this band and album at all on the web, apart from a mention of its existance on AllMusic.com and also some ratings on Rate Your Music.com. So this is pretty obscure stuff and appears not to be commercially available at present.
So What's it like? Overall I find this a most enjoyable album and a good example of that 70s blues based rock/pop that I enjoy so much. Not overly commercial, with a soul tinged funk and blusey feel and a strong singer that reminds me slightly of "Fusion" with mabey a touch of "Blood.Sweat & Tears " and "Creedence".
The vocal melodies are not outstanding , which is why it is not that commercial sounding, but I do enjoy
Mick Whittaker's singing on this album. No really knock you dead tracks on this, but "Getting better For Me", "You Really Know What You Want","Rainwalker", "America" and "Billy Dean" are the strongest tracks, all rating 3/5 but verging on 4's.
Track one: Getting Better For Me: Great uptempo bass and keyboard driven pop song with a funky feel to it and nice guitar bit towards the end, best track on album 3.8/5.
Track Two: Change Your Mind: Slightly slower tempo,with sparce guitar and keyboards and nice touch of  harmoniker. 3/5.
Track Three: You Really Know What you Want: A Funky Guitar/Keyboard intro and the funky groove drives the song throughout and I liked the guitar break. 3/5
Track Four: Rain Walker: Another slower song, with interesting tempochanges and aslo interesting vocal announcations, kind of like an early "Kings of Leon" vocal. A strong song. 3.5/5.
Track Five: America: Another toe tapper wit quite a lot happening in this one, pretty full on in the middle with a slower beginning and end. 3.5/5.
Track Six: Billy Dean: Cool guitar Intro, real "Creedence Feel to this, sort of swamp boogie rock. 3.8/5.
Track Seven: Buttermilk: Honkytonk Paino, Steel guitar, sort of novely swamp thing, a good sing along song. 3/5
Track Eight: Miss Ann: Interesting Rythem section intro, blusey feel piano/bass/drums, suggestive lyrics. 3/5
Track Nine: Gamblin' Man: Slower track, again supported by piano, with slight tempo changes and subdued guitar break. 3/5
Track Ten: So Long: "Deep Purple" type keyboard intro, much bigger sound to this track with a bit of a southers sound to it. I enjoyed the keyboard break and song finished with a strong ending. 3/5

I really can't rave about this album, but it is an enjoyable listen and dererves attention, overall 3/5.

You can listen to this album here

1 comment:

Jackbeefree said...

I love the songs on this album