After 10 albums with
Procol Harum, lead singer, composer, and keyboard player
Gary Brooker launched his solo career with this album. Of course, there were
Brooker's familiar characteristics -- the steady piano work, the butterscotch soul voice. But he switched lyric partners for this set (except for the title track), trading longtime
Procol wordsmith
Keith Reid for
Pete Sinfield, who had performed the same function for
Procol contemporaries
King Crimson and
Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Brooker also tried a couple of tunes by Stiff Records pub-rocker
Mickey Jupp (
Jupp's versions are better) and
Murray Head's "Say It Ain't So, Joe" (
Roger Daltrey's version is better). The result was a varied set that succeeded in sounding like something other than
Procol Harum's 11th album, although it did not demonstrate that
Gary Brooker solo was going to be an improvement over the group. ~ William Ruhlmann