An invisible prison encircles my mind - I wait for a vision, I search for a sign

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts.

29/08/71 : In Hearing Of Atomic Rooster - Atomic Rooster

Only the second ever mention for Atomic Rooster and I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to be weird prog which I find particularly unpleasant - always happy to be proved wrong though.

Well, it is prog - but it's not really weird or unpleasant. I was reminded of Genesis's output from around this period - it might wander aimlessly around for a bit longer than strictly necessary, but there's nothing wrong with it and they obviously all know their way around their instruments. So, all in all, I'd say this was a pleasant surprise (if not exactly something I'm going to ever rush back to) - I'm also intrigued as to what the album title actually means.

We're at #32 in the charts this week on their third week of a four week run, with it having peaked at #18 in its second week. The top five this week were TOTP Vol 18 (seriously?), Simon & Garfunkel, The Moody Blues, Carole King and Black Sabbath with the highest new entry being Total Sound (sneaking in at #49) which seems to be an album of mostly contemporary tracks covered by a random set of orchestras.

Wikipedia tells us this is their third album and the most interesting thing that it tells us (OK - the only thing it tells us) is that the band members pictured in on the inside cover never actually all played together because John Cann and Paul Hammond recorded their parts but were then let go and Pete French was drafted in. Their entry tells us to my surprise that they're still going but they were dormant from '83-'16, so it feels like they've just gone along with it as something to do in their old age. The only word we have about critical reception is a middling retrospective review from AllMusic and commercially it didn't really set the world alight, getting to #45 in Canada and #167 in the US.

discogs.com tells us this is a relatively expensive album because you'll have to spend a tenner to get a copy and if you want a copy with an original inner sleeve then it's going to set you back £180. I won't be doing that but this was considerably more bearable than I was expecting and I suspect multiple listens would bring out more detail that I missed the first time around.

05/09/71 - Surprisingly enjoyable

 

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