SPYGLASS GUEST & TIME AND TIDE

As were the first and second albums, so are the third and fourth albums by Greenslade issued together. Even the essay writer can't escape the artistic downfall especially on Time and Tide (1975), though he tries to put part of the blame on the genre in general: "Prog was beginning to run out of steam". The 3½-page essay also describes the tracks.

Spyglass Guest (1974) is more or less on the same level as the earlier albums, maybe the sound has less heavy organ and more variety with keyboards, especially electric piano and clavinet are used, and the music often feels slightly jazzier. Earlier the band's jazziness was more similar to COLOSSEUM (where Dave Greenslade played), now it comes closer to the Fusion genre. Only two out of 8 tracks are instrumentals. I have never liked Dave Lawson's vocals but here vocals on many songs are delivered with less pressure and are quite OK. 'Red Light' with rubbish lyrics about being "hooked on a hooker" is the worst track. 'Theme from an Imaginary Western' is originally Jack Bruce's (Cream) and more direct than Greenslade usually.

Time and Tide has rock songs (with guitars unlike before) that are absolutely pain to listen to, mainly due to Lawson's awful vocals. The cover painting by Patrick Woodroffe imitates Roger Dean's art for the first and second albums. Of the songs with lyrics only reflective 'Doldrums' (by Lawson) is among the better parts of the extremely uneven album. Short instrumentals 'Time' (featuring male voice choir) and 'Tide' are pretty good and so are vivid 'Catalan' and exciting 'Gangsters'.

The albums are worth 3 and 2 stars respectively. I round it down because of material waste (of not putting them on the same CD).