THERE'S THE RUB

After the obviously uninspired Wishbone Four album, Ted Turner left the band to pursue (to my knowledge) non-musical issues in life. In came second guitarist Laurie Wisefield and to the result of the album, his input was actually quite positive as TTR is a vast improvement on its studio predecessor. Not that the album brings you back to the awesome grandeur of Argus, far from it, but this is clearly the best post-Ted Turner album in WA's lengthy career. A rather strange and bland artwork about crickett (the same year that Roy Harper would release HQ also about the same weird gamesport) is "gracing" the sleeve.

But , please do not expect the same sound as on their first three albums (or anything really progressive for that matter) that most progheads appreciate so much: rather now we have a much more compact and concise unit playing a hard rock with the band having a hard time finding its definite stride on the first side of the album: with only the brilliant Persephone as a highlight, the rest of the tracks are of the same calibre as their previous WF. However the second side shines in all its glory with the two solar tracks: the moody Lady Jay and the back-to-the-roots FUBB (Fµcked Up Beyond Belief) where the Ash kicks you ass as much as on their debut album. Truly an enjoyment.

If this album seems like the new start for WA, I can only say that I was quickly disillusioned when the following Locked In and New England arrived. But between those two albums and this one is a huge time-gap (18 months I believe) where the band proceeded to conquer the US market and actually resettled there. And while their success would climb to them being a fixture on the Stadium Rock circle, their will to do aventurous albums will gradually completely disappear and their output will be simply run-of-the-mill everyday business-as-usual.

Although remaining one of their four best album in their lengthy career, this album is hardly essential to progheads, but will certainly still please them, still.

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