Audio CD review:
Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green

Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green

Band: Ten Years After Title: Cricklewood Green Rating: Release Date: 12 October, 1999 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Sugar The Road 2: Working On The Road 3: 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain 4: Year 3,000 Blues 5: Me And My Baby 6: Love Like A Man 7: Circles 8: As The Sun Still Burns Away

Editoral Review The well-produced Cricklewood Green, consisting of all-original material by Lee, is the group's best studio effort. Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee's hyperactive guitar solos (fretboard attacks a speed-metal guitarist would be proud to unleash) caught the ear of British rock fans and built a bridge to the blues. For a band that made its reputation with live performances, most conspicuously at the Woodstock festival, that's probably minor praise, but it's praise nevertheless. The extended workout of the hit single "Love Like a Man" is the centerpiece of the album, one that opens with the frantic buzz of the back-to-back road songs "Sugar the Road" and "Working on the Road. " But Lee, ably assisted by keyboardist Chick Churchill, fleshes out the trademark Ten Years After blues frenzy with an assortment of atypical approaches and styles. "Me and My Baby" delivers Lee and the band in a relaxed, almost swinging, mode, while "Circles" is a rare ballad offering. The sci-fi blues of "Year 3000 Blues" and semi-psychedelia of "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "As the Sun Still Burns Away" further extend the album's reach without sacrificing any of Lee's guitar excursions. --Michael Point .. You can see a complete list of all Ten Years After discography, or go back to the Ten Years After tabs