Crawler were formed as an offshoot to Back Street Crawler after the tragic death of guitarist Paul Kossoff. This is the band’s second album from 1978. Even though the blues are present in certain songs, they are not as upfront as when Kossof was around. The tunes are a lot more radio friendly with an eye on commercial success and are going in a hard rock direction. Geoff Whitehorn is a worthy replacement for Kossoff and is a great guitar player, and in Terry Wilson Slessor they have a great vocalist.
First track, Sail On, has American radio written all over it and is a great song. Disc Heroes is one of the blues based tunes on the album. How Will You Break My Heart has a touch of soul and funk about it, Slesser sounds like Rod Stewart in places, and a great solo from Whithorn make this a great tune. Muddy Water follows, and as the title suggests, is a blues based song but done ballad style. Last song on Side 1 is First Class Operator – a shuffle boogie and an ok tune.
Side 2 starts with Where Is The Money? It’s done in a reggae style and has a great chorus and some great guitar. Hold On follows and is a short pretty pointless joke hick tune. Midnight Blues is another big ballad which builds nicely. Liar could have been an Eagles tune as the melodies remind me of them. It has a killer lead break from Whitehorn and it makes this one of the best tracks on the album. Final track, One Way Street, is a nice rockin’ ending to the album.
After this album they all went their separate ways, and other than 3 live records that were release over 20 years later, that was it. I bought this when it first came out and I still play it occasionally.
7/10 from The Grooveman.
