THERE'S THE RUB

There are some albums we don´t really like that much at the time it was released, or we first hear it, and then, many years after that, we came to love it. That´s exactly the case in here. A cousin bought Wishbone Ash´s There´s The Rub and it spent a great amount of time in my house. However, I never really enjoyed that much then. It seemed inferior to the two I had before (Argus and Wishbone Four). It is like the losing of guitarist Ted Turner was a major blow to the chemistry of the group (obs. unlike some reviewers here wrote, the Turners of the band - the other one being singer and bassist Martin - were not brothers. In fact they were not even related). But recently I decided to pick this one again. And, for some reason, I started to like it a lot. Was it because the new remastered CD version revealed some subtleties I missed more than 30 years ago? Was it because now I have a better stereo? Or did I change? It´s a mystery, but still I´m glad I came to enjoy it that much (still I think I like Wishbone Four more, though. A matter of taste).

Songs like the opener Silver Shoes, with its county-ish beginning, the beautiful epic ballad Persephone (one of their classics) and the celtic influenced Lady Jay can be counted as three of their best songs ever, a must have for any future compilation. The rocker Don´t Come Back and the powerful instrumental F.U.B.B. are also strong cuts (the latter have clearly influenced Steve Harris, of Iron Maiden). The only below par song is Hometown, and yet this rock´n roll tune is not bad either. Certainly the good remastering made much difference here, bringing out their best performances in a long time: the twin lead guitars are shining, the vocal harmonies soar, and the rhythm section (specially the terrific bass lines) is brilliant. The inclusion of acoustic instruments on some parts like the mandolin on Persephone and the banjo on Lady Jay give those songs a poignant feel, nice touches that were not very common at the time. By the way, ex-Home guitarist Laurie Wisefield fills Ted Turner´s shoes very well.

Some people claim There´s The Rub would be Wishbone Ash´s last great album. I´m not yet familiar with their latter output, but so far I can say it´s in the same league as their previous works. I´m looking forward to hear the next WA albums with Wisefield. This one, however, was a nice rediscover for. Rating: 4 strong stars, no less.