COUNTERPOINTS

Counterpoints is the last studio album released by the group Rod Argent founded when he elected to pass up on the revisionist tour of the Zombies following the belated and surprising success of "Time of the Season".

Commercially, Argent wouldn't find much more success than did the Zombies for most of their tenure, although they did release "Hold Your Head Up", which managed to become a smash and oft-played hit despite its length and Rod Argent's three minute long keyboard rant in the middle. They also enjoyed some success with "God Gave Rock n' Roll To You", "It's Only Money", and "Sweet Mary". But Counterpoints would prove to be a swan song that did little to impress either fans or most of the band itself, which would disband the year following its release.

All but three of the tracks were written by Rod Argent, the exceptions being "Time" (by Argent's cousin and bass player Jim Rodford, who would later join the Kinks), plus "Waiting for the Yellow One" and "It's Fallen Off" by guitarist Jim Grimaldi, who later died of multiple sclerosis. So much for 'Where are they Now?'. Drummer Robert Henrit was suffering from hepatitis at the time, so Phil Collins filled in on drums for most of the album. Chris White, who had been such a big part of the Zombies and Argent's success to this point, did not play on the album, but did lend a hand with the production.

"On My Feet Again" leads off the album, and sounds quite frankly like something of a swan song for the British invasion of modern pop music. It's an okay song, but there is nothing to distinguish it from dozens of other similar and largely forgotten bands of the early 70's.

On "I Can't Remember, But Yes", the music has similarities to the mildly theatrical rocking sound of the Who ala Quadrophenia, or parts of Tommy.

Rodford wrote "Time", and it has a much different sound than the rest of the album. Rod Argent and John Verity's vocals sound a bit like masculine versions of Jon Anderson from something like Relayer, or maybe Fragile. The song begins with an almost improvisational feel, and Rodford's bass has a definite jazzy tone throughout. Rod Argent and Grimaldi both wander fairly unrestrained on keyboards and guitar through most of the song. Aside from the odd harmonizing chanting that pops in from time to time, a casual listener could easily mistake this for some ancient lost Yes song.

"Waiting for the Yellow One" is a mild, rather melancholic tune that sounds not unlike some of the later stuff Klaatu did before they faded away. Here again are the strange harmonizing vocals that serve mostly to date this album well back in the 70's decade. I take it this is a song about mortality, or some such thing.

In addition to "Waiting", Jim Grimaldi offered up "It's Fallen Off" to close side one of the album. This one leans heavily toward a up-tempo jazz feel, complete with a spastically active bass-line and strident keyboards at every turn, and is an instrumental. I'm not sure if the drums on this song are Collins', but if so it's a different sound from him then I've ever heard before.

The entire back half of the vinyl album was written by Rod Argent. "Be Strong" isn't really strong at all, more like a bit of a fruity tripping tune, complete with some borderline falsetto vocals, presumably coming from Rod Argent. The lyrics are nothing to write home about, kind of an immature lost-love song ("love can leave you crying", "I don't want to go, I don't want to leave you", "I must leave you my goodbye - so long, be strong").

"Rock n' Roll Show" is apparently an attempt to resurrect the "God Gave Rock n' Roll To You" sound for another hopeful hit single, which obviously failed. This reminds me totally of some of the more commercial stuff bands like the Small Faces or maybe Stealers Wheel. This one is very guitar-heavy, and more aggressive than just about anything else on the album, except the vocals, which are not convincing.

"Butterfly" seems to have some sort of horn in it, although there isn't any in the liner note credits. I get the impression this is a kind of 'lovely waif maiden' tribute song. It's okay, although the vocals again don't seem to quite match the accompanying music, which is characterized by the unacknowledged horn (trumpet?) and Rod Argent's almost lounge act keyboards.

The album closes with "Road Back Home", a lengthy, spacey tune with some rather attractive guitar work, but little else to distinguish it. It almost seems as if the band was simply content to wind the album (and their career) to a close. The fadeout ending is probably an appropriate way to end their final studio effort.

This isn't a landmark album, or a landmark band for that matter. Taken only on its own merits, it would probably rate about 2.49 stars as a slightly progressive album never made even enough of an impression to convince anyone to re-release any time in the past thirty years on CD. Considering the pedigree of some of the players (and it's relative rarity) though, it should get a bit of a bump, so three stars seems like an appropriate place to mark it.

peace