CHARGE!

I think that I listened to this now very hard to find album for the first time in 1975-76. One of my brothers, who plays guitar, borrowed it for a time from one of his friends. He played it very much while playing his first electric guitar while he was learning how to play it. I remember that I really didn`t like this album very much at that time, but I liked a lot the cover art, done by Roger Dean. So, since then the more associated memory that I had from this album was the cover art.

Well, I think that, strictly speaking, this is not a full Prog Rock album, but it is good anyway. I found some influences from URIAH HEEP and DEEP PURPLE in their sound, with their mix of Hard Rock with some Prog Rock arrangements. There are also some influences from PROCOL HARUM in Pete Solley`s organ playing. It is really an album with eclectic sounds, very enjoyable, that sounds a bit dated, with a sound that I found very characterisitic of some other albums released in the early seventies.

"Give Me Your Hand" is a Hard Rock song with good guitars and organ, plus some Latin-Influenced percussion. "Well We Might" is mostly an Rock and Roll song played with good slide guitar. "Get On Together" is one of the most Prog Rock influenced songs, in a song composed by the band`s drummer, Keith Webb. "Anyway" also has Prog Rock influences, with very good orchestral arrangements. "Good Lord" is another good Hard Rock song. The last songs in this album, "Mix Your Mind with the Moonbeams" and "Watching the World Pass By" are very Prog Rock in arrangements, and are among the best in this album.

Pete Solley years later played with PROCOL HARUM, adding sytnhesizers to the organ`s sound of the band for their final album of the seventies, called "Something Magic", in 1977. He was the main songwriter in this PALADIN`s album, but all the other members of the band also contributed to some songs as songwriters. It is a shame that this band only recorded two albums and later split. All the members are very good musicians. The lead and backing vocals are also very good.