yardbirds

...the only LP to feature jimmy page was seen at the time as not as good as it could have been but looking back its a real nice effort from the changing times when '67 psych was giving way to a more heavy blues rock/early proggyness...there's some cool chamber sike with excellent guitar squeal on the title track followed by some groovy patented yardbird R&B, again with some pagey stringbending over the top...third track (white summer) sees page looking forward, not to led zep 1 but the third folky effort so he's already looking to inject london folk (bert jansch/davy graham) onto a group scenario...more hard pop follows with then more sike with exotic instrumentation/blues rocking and jimmy whips out the violin bow a couple of times...dig track 5 with the funky eastern groove just like eric burden was doing with the winds of change LP...its the name and expectations that made this LP sound a failure to rock snobs but any layabouts who groove on the late 60s anglo sike/blues scene will find lots too enjoy, there was a way forward with this line up but they all wanted 'more' too quickly at the time, because with the bonus cuts that come with this reissue added, they show some sort of happy medium could been found combining keith relfs renaissance and some wigged out zeppo style shreaking, but hindsight does allow a wider vision so this must be seen as it is, a cat must make of it what they will...
...game on...