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Strawbs - Burning for You CD (album) cover

BURNING FOR YOU

Strawbs

 

Prog Folk

2.62 | 68 ratings

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Heptade
Prog Reviewer
3 stars Like most of the Strawbs' post '75 releases, this album is a mixed bag of strong, weak and horrible songs. The band's signature folk and prog mix had become watered down by an American-style AOR flavour, resulting in a strange hybrid of the arcane and the commercial. When this album works, it soars- "Burning for Me" is a smouldering folk-influenced ballad with lush strings and moody guitar swells and is definitely a career highlight. "Cut Like a Diamond" may be Dave Cousins' most aggressive sounding rocker ever, with razor-sharp distorted guitar riffing and vocals that verge on sounding hysterically unhinged. "Alexander the Great" is a stab at Queen-esque glam, and to me is surprisingly successful, even if the lyrics are kind of dumb. The rest of the album merges on tuneful but middling ('Barcarole", "Heartbreaker") to saccharine and forgettable ("Keep on Trying", "Goodbye (Is Not an Easy Word to Say)"). The AOR material may have appealed to the band's US audience, but it does drag the quality of the album down a bit. Nonetheless, there are enough gems on this last gasp of an album to allow me to give a tentative recommendation to Strawbs enthusiasts who may not have bought it yet. 2.5 stars
Heptade | 3/5 |

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