NUMBER THE BRAVE

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I'm not aware of what they relesed in the '70, only some tracks here and there on the radio, so i'm gonna be obiective to this one as much as i can. My impresion is very good, maybe a little hard rock than prog, but very nice compositions, every track sounds fresh, to me, if not for many. One of the good albums in the early '80. Some super tracks are Underground and Number the brave. For hard rock fans is a good one, for prog lovers, for those into Genesis, Floyd, Jethro Tull, etc, this is a simple music with little prog elements. To me 4 stars.

Here's another band who was making glorious records in the 70s, trying to fit in the new decade, incorporating the modern (for the time) approach and sounds. But: they weren't exaggerating, and the album, although a bit weaker from their prime albums (songwriting-wise) is not bad, as I said. When I say it's not bad I actually want to say this: there's some Wishbone Ash essence inside. It's much more oriented to boogie-rock and southern rock then it's predecessors (I guess fans of ALLMAN BROTHERS would enjoy this one), but on the other hand they used new wave licks: a simple, repetitive guitar chord playing in staccato...at the moment I expected to hear lyrics of London Calling by THE CLASH. Honestly. I don't have a problem with that.

The other thing is, they changed their sound picture a bit - but don't worry, there are no cheesy synths or 80's drum sounds here - guitars are much wider sound-wise, and they sound great. They were not overdoing the effects.

Early Wishbone's album were prog, or contained some traces of prog...this one contains a shade of a shade of proggy, it's straightforward rock, but the sound offered some innovations, really. It's a new decade. And what I'm missing the most, there are no more vocal harmonies, just plain vocal. Which is not memorable, but at least is not boring.

I can't believe I'm rating this one with three stars. At first sight, it was horrible, then, slightly better but annoying, and after that it grew on me and I learned to appreciate it. Surely it can't be compared with any album that actually deserves three stars. But Number The Brave is charming, and perhaps you should get it to see how is possible for a 70s band to sound decent in the 80s.

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.

It was quite a surprise to discover the cover of "Get Ready" from "Rare Earth" to be played by WA. I am of course talking about the single version of this classic and not the side long one from their album.

To be honest, I have enjoyed the originals (single and album versions in 71) quite a lot and when I was confronted with this poor and pale comparison, I was quite disappointed. It is quite disastrous to my ears.

It is of course true to say that at this time of their career, no great stuff was expected but at least decent music could have been the goal. To be fully honest, there is some good rocking moment à la "Status Quo" ("Where Is The Love"). But can this be related with prog? I guess that you know the answer?

"That's That" sounds quite like "My Generation" and is borderline plagiarism as far as I'm concerned. Still: it is a great and wild rock song for sure. On the contrary, the funky "Roller Coaster" and "Loaded" are quite dreadful and meant for US FM radio. Not my cup of tea as you might know? The weak and heavy "Rainstorm" is not raising this album any higher in terms of quality, I'm afraid?

Here and there, some good and straight forward song as "Number The Brave" and "Underground" are saving my time and procure some fine feel. The fine and upbeat "Kids On The Street" is of course also welcome but this is mainstream rock'n'roll. No more. As such: two stars.