EARTH AND FIRE

Earth & Fire debut are obviously different from the rest of their production. Jerney's voice is of course already very nice (for the ones who can stand it, and I belong to those ones). This album holds very few symphonic and bombastic songs. This record was released in 1970, so there is no wonder : some pyschedelic mood is to be noticed. Just listen to "Wild And Exiting". Fully reminiscent of the Airplane and to some extent to Floyd ("Piper" period of course).

This album has not aged very well, I'm afraid. There is no need for the casual fan to grab this one although a song like "21st Century Show" indicates already the direction that they will pursue a little later (more complex structure, nice flute) while "Seasons" reminds me "Never Marry A Railroad Man" from "Shocking Blue" (their fellow countrymen, woman) which was also released in 1970.

Each remastered version features a hell of good bonus tracks. Five songs or so being present on each version. Several anthems which will be available on later studio releases ("Memories", "Song Of A Marching Children", "Storm & Thunder".

Two stars.