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Argent return with heads held high

Argent came of age with this album, thanks in no small part to the huge hit single "Hold your head up". The version on the album differs from the single edit by including a fine organ solo by Rod Argent

The band had decided to give this album more of a rock feel than previous more eclectic outings, and many of the tracks have a solid beat behind them. Russ Ballard contributes some of his finest songs, the best of which are "Tragedy" and "He's a dynamo", the latter being a tribute to Rod Argent. "I am the dance of ages" is a slower but very powerful song, with soaring choruses and a heavy plodding backbeat. The song was destined to become a great live track, as witnessed by the band's "Encore" album.

The closing track "Pure love" is in four parts, and lasts over 10 minutes. It's very much a Rod Argent suite, being heavy on the keyboards and with Argent taking the lead vocal. I find it to be something of a disappointment for a feature track, the four sections not really flowing well together, and the long third section (the only one with vocals) meandering and appearing unfocussed. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad track, but it not up to the standard of the rest of the album.

"Pure love" aside though, an excellent album with a relentless pace, which sees the band taking a major stride forward from their previous albums.

After the encouraging second album where clearly their prog potential was starting to ooze out of their pores, the band's third album All Together Now became a huge success with the amazing (but not very complicated) Hold Your Head Up single (although it was abridged compared with the 6-min album version). While the bland gatefold artwork was nothing to warn fans that the group was indeed taking a prog turn, the group was indeed maturing, but they were definitely not finished the metamorphose.

Past the opening huge organ-drenched Hold Your Head Up, came a full-out Rock And Roll track, which would also become a live favourite. Another superb track is the slow-paced Dance Of The Age, full of drama and filled with inspired lyrics! This song was to be yet another live milestone in their concert receiving superb elongated versions lasting up to triple its original length. Ballard comes through with Tragedy, the slightly too long Be My Lover and Dynamo, but while Russ would one day write Argent's most enduring hit single, he's not yet reached top form here, even if Tragedy does hold its own. But most of the flipside is held by the four-part 13-min Pure Love mini-suite. And unfortunately I must say that the promises that this was proposing are not really held. Heavy on the organ and light on everything else, there is not much substance in this failed experiment. The one thing that became apparent is that while a good songwriter, Rod's virtuoso qualities being un-denied, his inspiration is a little too obvious and unfortunately he appears derivative (avoiding to say the next step upwards on this scale).

Definitely not yet at cruising speed, but well on the way there, Argent's ATN is the first of the classic album, but I wouldn't call it essential just yet.

After some ups (their debut) and downs ("Ring of Hands"), "Argent" comes back with another good album.

The highlight is of course their excellent hit "Hold Your Head Up", which features a fantastic and heavy keyboards solo which is just fabulous. This extended version is on par with the greatest "Heep" or "Atomic Rooster" ones.

The funky rhythms are back with "Tragedy": it could have been featured on their second opus. Great bass and organ play, but vocals are quite annoying. It is a pity because if you'd take "I Am The Dance Of Ages" vocals here are quite decent and the hypnotic beat is a real killer. One of my fave.

Of course, some songs from a band like "Argent" were just milk and honey for me, since I was quite keen on such music (and alike) in those days. The band had of course much less exposure than the big ones (or legendary ones), but it is really worth investigating for younger generations. If you enjoy these heavy organ sounds, "Argent" is for you (as "Atomic Rooster" of course).

Good old rock'n'roll is not forgotten. No less than two revival tracks are available: "Keep On Rollin" (indeed) and "He's A Dynamo". Maybe not the best songs from the album though.

The central part of this work is the epic "Pure Love". Some imposing church oriented keys to start with, more bombastic ones to follow. The world of Emerson is wide opened. But Rod Argent is rather alone to entertain us. I would have hoped some more contribution from his band mates. This prog intro is followed with some bluesy and vocal parts later on during the "Pure love" section which sounds rather flat to be honest.

Even if he wasn't a member of "Argent" (he used to play in "The Zombies"), the work of Chris White is truly fundamental in the song writing: five out of seven tracks are co-written with Rod Argent (he is also mostly influent on other "Argent" releases).

The last CD version (1997) features no less than seven bonus tracks (good for thirty minutes of music). Some tracks being from earlier releases ("Celebration" or "Rejoice") other ones being released later on ("God Gave Rock'n'Roll" or "Christmas For Free").

Some unreleased studio album tracks like the psychedelic "Kingdom", the profoundly "Free" oriented "Closer To Heaven" (written by Ballard) or the second part of "It's Only Money" are worthwhile and welcome. They don't raise the level of this album which I would rate with three stars. A solid heavy rock album.

It's very difficult to choose the best album of this band. All of their LPs (especially from classic period 1971-1974) include fantastic prog gems, but also some amount of pop/ (pseudo) hard rock stinkers usually composed by Russ Ballard. However if I had to pick up one, particular record from their discography it would be "All Together Now":

1. "Hold Your Head Up" - album starts with this real classic of heavy prog genre. Organ drenched tune with memorable rythm and melody (but not popish!) makes this composition a fantastic opener and one of the best song in Argent's catalog. Organ solo in the middle is perfectly long and truly splendid in the best tradiditon of Jon Lord or Vincent Crane.

2. "Keep On Rollin'" - first awful filler of this record. Piano-oriented woogie-boogie. Avoid as a plague!

3. "Tragedy" - after miserable previous track Argent serves as another classic heavy rock tune. Very good, catchy - almost heavy metal-like -screaming vocals and of course lots of roaring Hammonds delivered by master Rod including another perfect solo.

4. "I Am the Dance of Ages" - definitely one of my favorite song of this band. Really hypnotizing melody which give me shivers everytime I listen to it. And this monotonous (but at the same time very captivating!) march/funeral-like drums... Organ "noodling" in the middle of the song build great atmosphere. This song has less than 4 minutes, but when you listen to this, it sounds like 10+ minutes epic ! (of course it's a compliment for progheads like me :-).

5. "Be My Lover, Be My Friend" - mainly straightforward hard rock composition which can't be distinguish from so many similar songs played in 70' by classic rock bands. However this track includes one of the best organ solos from band's leader which saves it from medicority. (BTW it's quite typical situation for Argent. The same phenomena you can observe in such songs as "Cast Your Spell Uranus" or "Pleasure" from their previous album "Ring of Hands").

6. "He's a Dynamo" - second serious bump of the album. Stupid rock'n'roll song with simple piano, which would be a filler even in some early 60' R&B record.

7. "Pure Love (Fantasia/Prelude/Pure Love/Finale)" - after previous horrible (but fortunately short) stinker Argent presents us my favorite composition: 13 minutes, 4 parts suite "Pure Love" which sounds like a beatiful hommage to all great organ players. This epic starts with fabulous section of dreamy church-like organ playing (but I suppose it's still Hammond organ, maybe without Leslie cabinet this time?). Seems to be tribute to J.S. Bach! However after 5 minutes drums join and music turns into The Nice/ELP/Triumvirat direction. Perfect! "Pure Love" sequence seems to be out of place here with it's more simple rock'n'roll attitude. But hey, I still like it here. Mixing more straightforward rock patterns with symphonic prog is a trademark of this band after all! Anyway "Finale" ends the suite with another magnificent, powerful organ performence. Real gem of this album and this band's discography in general.

To summarize: 3rd Argent's album contains 4 fantastic tracks, 1 good but not essential hard rock song with phenomenal organ solo and 2 absolutely horrible farts. (Anyway still big improvement after "Ring of Hands" which had much bigger amount of medicore songs and only few really prog tracks.)

By the way, it's a must-have album for Hammond organ lovers! 4,5 stars for me.