The band's second and final album for their new label starts off promisingly with the moody and expansive "Burning for Me"; Cousins sings with restraint over a somber repeating theme on piano and strings, and it ends with a hint of a Moog solo...Cousins at least gets back a bit of his old bile in "Alexander the Great," where he gives a sour kiss-off to music critics... ~ Paul Collins, All Music Guide

CD $38.93

The group's ballsiest album to date, a surging, hard-rocking follow-up to Bursting at the Seams, which debuted a new lineup, Richard Hudson, John Ford, and Blue Weaver having left to form their own group. In their places, ex-Nashville Teens keyboardman John Hawken and the more muscular rhythm section of Rod Coombes and Chas Cronk make their debut, on what is the Strawbs' first fully electric album. Dave Cousins' songwriting (augmented by Dave Lambert, who also contributes so   [ read more ]

CD $18.98

CD $38.93

This album was originally the weak link in the transition of the Strawbs from an acoustic folk-rock outfit to a progressive-folk band, being neither fish nor fowl and suffering from an anemic mix. The 1998 British reissue (A&M 540-939-2), however, solves some inherent problems that plagued both the original vinyl edition and the first CD reissues. The new remastering toughened up the bass sound, and brings out more of the sheer power of Rick Wakeman's organ and synthesizer playing, accenting the harde   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

This album, cut live at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in July of 1970, was the first Strawbs album to be released in the United States. It didn't do much in the U.S., but it did chart in England, and the original concert also got Rick Wakeman his first front-page coverage in the British music press, owing to his bravura performance on the solo piano spot, "Temperament for a Mind." The group is trying really hard here to make the jump from folk to folk-rock. They still play a lot of acousti   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Fulfillment! Singer/songwriter Dave Cousin finds a space somewhere between Bob Dylan and John Bunyan, Hudson and Ford come up with some superb hooks, and the electric sound is powerful and majestic. The music is serious -- perhaps too much so -- bracing, and sincere, if a bit downbeat. Reissued on CD in 1998 in remastered form, which makes the band sound really loud and close, so you can practically feel the room ambience of the studio. Cousins' electric guitar in {&"The Flower and the You   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Ghosts was the last album by the Strawbs to appear while the band was on its upward curve of commercial success; a more lyrical follow-up to Hero and Heroine, it was the group's last thrust at wide-audience appeal, with a hoped for-hit ("Lemon Pie") that didn't materialize. The group's mix of acoustic guitars, electric lead and bass, and Rod Coombes' heavy drumming was very compelling on this, their smoothest album; the title track introduction, mixing multiple overdubbed harpsichords, acoust   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

This chameleon of an album sounds more like ten different bands on a compilation than a unified Strawbs effort; fortunately, those ten bands are very good indeed. The album roars to life with spot-on imitations of Peter Gabriel in "To Be Free" and the Who in the windmilling riffs of "Little Sleepy." The bluesy torch song "Absent Friend" features some fine piano work and pensive electric guitar, while drummer Rod Coombes contributes a superbly withering (and still timely) blast at campaign fin   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

After credibly reinventing themselves with the previous year's "Nomadness," this album sent the band into a downward spiral...attempting to mainstream their sound. Not every song does so, though: "Beside the Rio Grande" revives the epic sound and moral outrage of "Grave New World" in its tale of a frontier minister's grisly religious martyrdom, and the pleasant strumming of "Thinking of You" soft-shoes its way through a music-hall love song... ~ Paul Collins, All Music Guide

CD $16.13

The band's second and final album for their new label starts off promisingly with the moody and expansive "Burning for Me"; Cousins sings with restraint over a somber repeating theme on piano and strings, and it ends with a hint of a Moog solo...Cousins at least gets back a bit of his old bile in "Alexander the Great," where he gives a sour kiss-off to music critics... ~ Paul Collins, All Music Guide

CD $16.13

A strange footnote in the band's live discography, for the material here is not only not the band's best, it's from what most fans consider their backsliding years of 1974 - 1978. That said, most the better songs of that era are represented here, and played well enough that this may be a better purchase than the original studio incarnations. (Nomadness, a fine album that is not well represented here, is an important exception.) The liner notes include a good overview of the band's history, although they    [ read more ]

CD $12.33

CD $12.33