This is Robin’s first album, released in ’73 after leaving Procul Harem to go solo. These early Trower albums are pure gold. Great heavy sound and tone to his playing but with real soul and feel, and Jimmy Dewar’s vocals just can’t be beaten. Quite unfairly tagged with being a Hendrix copyist, if the hacks who wrote those comments had paid a little attention to the music that was being played they would have heard that was not the case. Sure, Hendrix was an influence as he was to many, but that was it.
Right from the opening notes of I Can’t Wait Much Longer you know that you are hearing a genius play. Superb groovy tune with a killer vibe. Daydream is my favourite track and is a real slow tune, but the hairs still come up on my arm when hearing this after all these years. Just superb playing! Hannah follows and is another slow paced track, at least at the start, then a killer funky vibe takes over. The guitar sounds so heavy and yet very melodic. Side 1 closes out with the soul/funk of Man Of The World; a short groovy piece.
I Can’t Stand It opens up Side 2 and I love the riff, and Jimmy is singing with a spoken style. You can tell Robin is still finding his feet as a solo artist as he holds back on the solos on this album. The good old standard Rock Me Baby is next up and this version has a dirty swing to the groove with plenty of guitar. The title track is up next and this is the one track I don’t quite connect with. Sinners Song follows and the initial picked riff is quite simple. The groove is quite funky and I really love the middle section. The album closes out with Ballerina and it’s just Robin and Jimmy with the most beautiful delicate piece.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
