ANDY ROBERTS Just For The Record - The Solo Anthology 1969 - 1976
Sanctuary CMEDD1084 (74:33) (65:16) (2005)
Player with Liverpool Scene and many other notable sessions throughout the 60s, singer/guitarist Roberts finally got round to recording his first solo album in 1969, where this collection kicks off. But as opener Raven shows, no amount of pedigree can account for such a poor folk piece. Opening with some almost Crimson-esque acoustic guitar, it’s downhill from there with lyrics making little sense.
Applecross is the reverse, starting poorly before moving to moving in a Tull-like folk rock direction, the addition of drums and keyboards making a lot of difference.
Creepy John is decent blues, but the tracks elsewhere are a bit of an odd mixture.
Disc Two continues in the same vein, proving that no matter who you have on your album, it doesn’t make the music that good, with only about half the tracks enjoyable. Further proof that tracks previously unreleased are usually so for a reason.
A good and well annotated collection, but on this evidence a single disc would have done.
**
Review by Joe Geesin
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