Colin Blunstone - One Year

Not too sharp

There’s often a very good reason why an album didn’t sell first time around. Maybe a total lack of talent suddenly became apparent in the studio; perhaps the material was rubbish; the record company could have lost interest and issued the disc without promotion.

None of these, however, applies to Colin Blunstone’s first post-Zombies outing, released in 1972. The trouble here is that most of it – and there’s no kind way of putting this – isn’t very good. Cannily, it’s bookended by the two best cuts. Opener She Loves The Way They Love Her is an upbeat slice of rock’n’roll lifestyle which originated with the Zombies and features Russ Ballard on guitar, while the record closes with Say You Don’t Mind. This is so well known that it needs no further description, but it’s worth saying that the tune and arrangement suits Blunstone’s voice in a way which few other tracks on this album do. It is such a distinctive instrument that it seems to need a particular setting in which to thrive: a setting which his hits all had and which is largely lacking here.

Bart�k-like string arrangements are all very well in their place (preferably in a piece of work by Bart�k), but here they just come across as too angular and spikey.

Water | 193

Reviewed by Tim Holmes
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