Blue (1974) Lonesome - LOST 70s GEMS

A more acoustic guitar driven album then the blues rock balladry of their debut, Blue's 1974 release Life in the Navy may lose of it's grand sound but retains a knack for mildly engaging pop rock tunes straddling a line between Lindisfarne folk rock and Post Beatles heavy pop ballads. Best are the words, delivered in wearied, folk and pop melodies are based on emptiness, defeat and all manner of negative state of mind which was fresher than the standard blues of most acts of the day. For example Let's Talk it Over with it's countrified piano sound is built around a Gerry Rafferty styled vocal singin 'I remember days of happiness and the way it used to be'. Usually you would find only one or two of these type of songs on a rock bands' record rather than being full of them like this band often did. They were called Blue of course, there's a clue in the name, though having said that they never did find a hit either.

Sad Sunday an effortless laidback hard rocker with a funky laidback groove. All about drinking away painful memories and the inevitable 'Sad Sunday' hangover feeling of guilt; again top notch lyrics and superb dual guitar solo. So much of modern rock is present here with it's blues core, funky instrumentation and grunge styled use of restrained ballad singing.

As for the other tracks; Love bears a McCartney-esque tunefulness, Atlantic Ocean has an awesome euphoric country rock guitar solo, the band always flirting with attempts at the genre in this album in the occasional twangy guitar lick flavouring their hum drum acoustic strummed pop of this album. Why the album is called Life in the Navy, I still can't figure out. The gem however is the second on the track list; Lonesome a grooving, hand clapping hoedown in the spirit of Lindisfarne who they often shared a similar brand of folky soft rock. The heavenly yet rugged group harmonies are at the centre with great lyrics about mental health as they often did back then such as 'This depression surely messin my whole way of livin, need you near me, need you to steer me..' Excellent words!