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Cricklewood Green

Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green Audio CD

A fair review of the Ten Years After "Cricklewood Green" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Ten Years After reviews here, or go back to the Ten Years After tabs.

Band: Ten Years After
Title: Cricklewood Green
Rating:

Release Date: 2002-05-06
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 9: Warm Sun [#][*] 10: To No One [#][*]

This is THE Version!
That version is very muddy and muffled. While I've owned the 2001 Chrysalis version of Cricklewood Green for several years, and consider it to be a rock classic, I've always longed for something that sounded better sonically.

Well, I just received the 2002 EMI Europe version, and it is everything I hoped for - and more than I expected. It sounds VERY good - dramatically better than the Chrysalis issue. It also has a nice booklet where Chrysalis gives you a folded paper with the outer album art on it. Buy it new from a Marketplace seller, and you'll pay the same price as you would if you bought the lesser Chrysalis from Amazon. That's a good deal!

.

Better than the MoFi Gold!
So we don't need reviews of old versions of the CD telling us how good the music is. Before I get to this review, in which I'll focus on the sonics of the remastered Cricklewood Green, here's a plea to Amazon: please keep reviews for remastered versions of CDs limited to the remaster! Anyone interested in buying a remaster already knows the merits of the musical content, or they wouldn't want to buy a remastered version. The most important question to be answered in any review of a remaster is how it compares to the original version. Buyers want to know if the sonics really make it worth the money to buy it again, and yet so few reviews of remasters ever answer the question.

Now, as for my review of the Cricklewood Green remaster: If you're a fan of this disc (and you should be) then just stop reading and click the Buy button now. I have owned Cricklewood Green (and the earlier Ssssh) on the original vinyl, the first CDs, the MoFi Gold CD containing both albums, and now this remaster, which sonically blows all previous versions away.

My vinyl grooves are practically worn flat, so I can't speak to its sonic quality any longer. The first CDs of these albums were atrocious--the combo of '60s-era rock engineering and the harshness of the digital mastering rendered them almost unlistenable. The MoFi Gold CD, which I compared to this remaster directly, is certainly much better than the early CDs, but finishes second by a wide margin to this new version.

Overall, the instruments and vocals on this remaster have more weight and presence and are more clearly defined in the soundfield. I don't mean this in that etched, artificial sort of way that you hear on some remasters--no, I've bought my share of those, and this ain't one of 'em, thankfully! What you get here is sound that sounds totally natural, while still sounding better than you've ever heard it before. Once you've heard this version, the MoFi, by comparison, sounds flatter and far less dynamic, with vocals and instruments lacking that three dimensional sound.

The limiting factor at this point is the original quality of the engineering on the master tapes, which is very good but not great. So, four stars. .

Ten Years After At Their Best
This is my favorite Ten Years After album. . "Shhh" had the better cover with it's monster movie hippie face but this has better music. Some of the best jazz/blues fusion with the rockin'est beat you'll ever hear. Alvin Lee used to get quite a bit of stick for singing too much like Mose Allison, but so what? He did it and he did it well.

I love Chick Churchill's very cool organ playing, so well-done, complimenting Lee's fluid guitar playing. "Me and My Baby" is a slinky swinging blues, "Year 3000" is a bouncy country-fried Les Paul tribute, and the more rockin' tunes like "Love Like A Man" , "Working On The Road" and "As The Sun Still Burns Away" deliver amazing performances from the whole band.

After you get this blazing CD get "Ssshhh" with the scary cover and wicked tunes. .

Their best album!
This album has straight up blues songs, jams, a little country honk. You want everything that Ten Years After, has to offer. Great offering by an underated band. 4 1/2 stars.

Worthy remastering of a worthy LP
Of the eight tracks from the LP, five are excellent. Cricklewood Green was one of the first LPs I purchased, and this transfer makes me remember why. That is a high percentage.

TYA was riding high in 1970 when this LP was released. Shortly after Woodstock, where Alvin's too long performance of "I'm Going Home" made folks doubt his veracity, and after 3 solid but unspectacular releases, TYA found a huge success. Cricklewood Green was, according to the liner notes, on the Top 10 for months. Nearly everything worked on this. Alvin's tendency to overlong solos was reined in, his writing was crisper and tidier than before, keyboards were used brilliantly, the drumming was solid, and the vocals worked perfectly. This was British blues that rocked, or British rock that bled blue. Either way, this LP launched them to a height they never again were to reach. A Space In Time had their biggest radio song, but was far weaker, and I never heard any of their later stuff, nor did I seem to have reason to.

Nope, as far as I know, Cricklewood Green stands at the top of their not unlofty pile of work. Whittle it down to the best, and you have a scorching, well-written and well played set list that stands against anything of its time. And the remastering is excellent. I listened to this on excellent stereo equipment way back when, and this was so clean and clear. I was impressed.

Forget the "bonus tracks" one is negligible, and one is dreadful; no bonus there, I'm afraid. While I hate to see 40 minutes of material on 80 minute discs, nothing was gained by adding these, and something was lost. As The Sun Still Burns Away was a sensational closer, a fiery and inflamed guitar with burning singing and scorching keyboards; now two more tepid songs follow to diminish the mood.

You can see a complete list of all Ten Years After discography, or go back to the Ten Years After tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.