HERO AND HEROINE

"Hero & Heroine" showed Strawbs stepping away from their folk influences and moving further into the Progressive Rock terretory. This, of course, made the rythm-section on their previous albums Hudson-Ford leave the band because they weren't quite satisfyed with the direction the band was about to take. They were greatly replaces though, by Chas Cronk and Rod Coombes. "Autumn" is the best track here and it's a wonderful opener and a truly classic and beautiful Prog-Rock epic. It is nicely followed by "Sad Young Man", another song that I appreciate very much. The rest is mostly very good too, despite a few weak moments inbetween. Pure folk-rockers might be a tad disappointed with this one, but otherwise, I would say that this album is welcome to any comprehensive Progressive Rock collection.

4 stars.