(6/69 contd.)
Deep Purple -- Deep Purple: The compositions are growing tighter, the musicianship more pronounced. Rod Evans' attempts at crooning are a bit bizarre but generally work, and damn, those guitars are on point. B+
The Jeff Beck Group -- Beck-Ola: Did Beck take a page out of Jimmy Page's book for this one? Never the most innovative lad in the world, he was. This is nothing but capable blues rock at its core, yet it receives brownie points for Beck and Ronnie Wood's elite interplay. B
Elvis Presley -- From Elvis in Memphis: The best album by the so-called "King" to date, but then again, he was never really considered "The King of Quality Full-Length Albums", eh? His voice is better than ever, admittedly, which makes the uninspired song choices (as per usual) much more palatable. B
Alice Cooper -- Pretties for You: Some of the stupidest psychedelia you'll hear this side of Kaleidoscope. This backing band deserves better. C
Procol Harum -- A Salty Dog: Impressively, the tracks with more ambition work far better than those that attempt to play it safe. Give me more "Wrecks of the Hesperus" and less "Juicy John Pinks" any day, and while you're at it, toss me a few of them juicy-ass "Salty Dog" chord changes. A-
White Noise -- An Electric Storm: Production-wise it's incredibly ahead of its time, the atmosphere encapsulates you and entrances you in its entrapment. Minus a half-mark for a horrible track featuring "chipmunk"-ed vocals, or, as I refer to them, AIDS in musical form. B
(7/69)
Fairport Convention -- Unhalfbricking: Ah yes, they've really figured their sound out now. The English folk-rock instrumentation coupled with Sandy Denny's ethereal vocals and some brilliant production makes this easily the best album of theirs to date and one of the best albums of the genre this year. A-
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