As
Little Feat were working on their seventh studio album,
Lowell George was just marginally part of the group, spending much of his time completing his solo album,
Thanks I'll Eat It Here. While he was touring in support of the record, he suffered a massive heart attack and died, leaving behind an uncompleted record with
Little Feat. After mourning, the band regrouped and patched together
Down on the Farm, the last album of the Lowell-led era. Since
George was preoccupied during the recording, it's not surprising that he only makes himself heard on occasion on the album. It's also not surprising that the group was suffering, not just from the loss of a colleague, but from a lack of direction. They were drifting on
Time Loves a Hero, after all, and while this is musically a little more straightforward than that fusion-flavored affair, it still is fairly uninspired. The surfaces are very slick, as should be expected with late-'70s Californian rock, which again doesn't let the group breathe, but the real problem is that the material is just not terribly memorable. Given the circumstances surrounding the completion of
Down on the Farm, it's fairly easy to forgive the band this misstep, but it doesn't make the album any less disheartening. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine