It starts with Wiggle That Wotsit which maybe a Disco parody or a straight attempt, it features a stellar horn section bursting through in stacks while the melody is a hard driving rock beat full of energy married with their high tenor bubblegum harmonies and some tactile funky guitar work. Forty Eight Hour Parole opens with fiery Hendrix blues playing, the guitar tweaks and whines away in a screaming tone, while the chorus is once again a sparkling pop sensation with their spellbinding harmonies front and centre. Thanks for the Memories is a little bit different with a bed of placid electric piano chords lumbering along in a watery echo and some echo and delayed horn lines punching through the polite layers of dreary keyboards; the rest is four on the floor Bee Gees serene vocal drenched balladry. But the spectral horns remind me of the song fascination form Bowie's Young Americans album a couple years before where the horns sound ghostly in faded echo state; this layered production with it's many chord runs is thick enough to drown in.
My Love is a romantic folk hard rocker with startling vocal refrains and another top notch Clarke lead vocal that manages to have a pop rock soul quality all sweet but not smooth. Lady of the Night is a hot burning soul number with a curious techno sound with talkbox synth chord progression before a cooing chorus that inter plays with some wicked saxophone work; the fluid yet distorted flamenco solo confirms the nighttime jazz feel of the track. The title track is a hard rocker with waka waka guitar, a gurgling eruption of rumbling clavinet, sultry upper register piano and hard rock chords that remind me of the A Team theme of later years in it's unique stop start rhythm. The pan African rhythms add tension as do the echo chamber chorus to give a hot and sweaty vibe keeping the song at fever pitch, the solo by Hicks as always featuring a Hendrix water distortion and thick wah wah tone you can reach out and touch as he strangles the fretboard with vigour in his heavy playing style.
Draggin my Heels screams the Isley Brothers; from the 'Whos that Lady' rhythm guitar; a sprightly funk figure strummed back and forth to the chamelionic 'baritone soul' vocal Clarke puts on for the song. The spicy Jazz piano vamping, the Latin percussion, the analog synth patches; it is all too uncharacteristic of the Hollies but good. The album slows down with the stodgy forgettable T Rex bop of Louise, while the mildly dreary Be With You with i's multi-tracked layers of circular 'ahahahahs' is rescued by another rip roaring, countryesque solo by Hicks. Daddy Don't Mind ends on a fitting note with it's raw soul vocal and slicing funk guitars and disco beat; the heavy distorted lead guitar riff and the half speaking, breathy harmonies make this track sound like something the band Exile would have produced after their hit 'Kiss you All Over' a couple years after this record. But the foghorn sounding horn solo would fit a hazy jazz number not uptight hardcore funk rock.
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