CONTRABAND

A marked improvement on ' To the Hilt', it was almost as if GE knew they had taken a slightly wrong turn and decided to put in some extra creative effort for Contraband. In essence the same format is their from the previous album, just that the song writing is much more on the mark with some fine songs to sing priases too. There is a more conceptual feel to Contraband which let's face it in terms of progressive music credentials cannot do the album any harm when being reviewed or evaluated.

Still for all that a very enjoyable album the highlights of which are ' Mad Love's Comin', here Barry Hay is truly brilliant in his vocal delivery on this song and IMO the finest track on the album being the follow up ' Fightin Windmills'. Kooymans guitar work notably great on this release too and as usual Gerritsen's bass does the business. The ubiquitous Cesar Zuiderwijk at thr drum kit. Unlike other reviewers I am not convinced Jan Stips changed the sound, it was more a case of him climbing on the evolution bandwagaon at the time, needless to say great keyboard/synth work also. An excellent album overall.