NUMBER THE BRAVE

1981 and Number The Brave signalled a bit of a downer from Wishbone Ash. John Wetton in the fold and Laurie Wisefield dominating proceedings. For me the music is not as strong nor the lyrics/vocals. From the poor version of ' Get Ready' ( leave this one to Rare Earth guys!), the anything but loaded ' Loaded', pardon the pun and the throw away ' That's That' this signalled a mediocre release at best. The album does redeem itself with Laurie Wisefield's clever and catchy ' Roller Coaster' and the trademark sounding ' Rainstorm' which has excellent guitar work, but again the vocals fall short and would have been better as an instrumental. ' Open Road' is another solid track but as much as I want to justify two stars for this Wishbone Ash release, I simply cannot based on the poor combination of songs making up this album. Wishbone Ash managed changes well but not in 1981. For completionists only.