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1.
Do It Or Die (Buie/Cobb/Hammond)-3:27 |
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The opener is a lovely tune with
a melancholy sound that is a fitting follow up to the singles from
the previous album. The vocals project both strength and resignation,
and provide a great centerpiece, with the instrumentalists providing
a beautiful background but never stepping forward. |
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2.
Born
Ready (Buie/Daughtry/Nix)-3:54 |
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Guitars provide the lead in as the
tempo picks up. This song features some trademark breaks in tempo,
but overall the intensity builds to a polished but driving closing-top
quality Southern rock with a pop finish. |
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3.
I
Hate The Blues (Buie/Daughtry/Nix) / Let's Go Get Stoned (Ashford/Simpson)-7:12
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This
combination of songs, an approach unique in the ARS catalog, starts
with a steady rolling, uptempo blues with a strong vocal and sharp,
driving musical backing. Instead of shifting tempos within a song
as they have done so often and well, this time there is one total
tempo shift to a slower paced cover that swells into soaring vocals
and musical support, and builds to a classic blues finish. |
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4.
Indigo Passion (Buie/Cobb)-3:56 |
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The
band presents another beautiful ballad, with vocals sharing the
twists and turns of life and love and a musical performances that
provide a colorful background tableau. |
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5.
While
Time Is Left (Buie/Daughtry/Bailey/Nix)-5:20 |
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A beautiful mid-tempo song that combines
many of the elements that have made ARS' music unique. From the
beginning, the production sets a tone and the words create a picture.
The tempos shift and the instruments break out through the course
of this classic, timeless song.. |
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6.
It's Only Music (Buie/Cobb)-5:33 |
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The driving rhythm pushes the restrained
sound at the beginning of the song to build throughout this examination
of the band's success. A trademark break leads into guitar soloing
and an uptempo verse that breaks briefly for the wishful utterance
"disco go" before closing with a rousing guitar workout. |
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7.
Spooky (Buie/Cobb/Shapiro/Middlebrooks)-4:57 |
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A re-recording of this song that
had been a hit for the Classics IV, one of the groups that was the
genesis for ARS. This version is largely true to the original with
a slow but steady tempo. Upgraded production techniques give this
version a brighter sound, and the powerful vocals lead into some
extended guitar and keyboard soloing that make this remake a classic
in its own right. |
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8.
My Song (Buie/Hammond)-3:15 |
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The album closes with an acoustic
ballad that's a rumination on how much the musician has to give
of themself as a performer on a stage. The acoustic guitar and vocal
perfectly capture the desire to "let this be a song for me." After
all ARS had given musically up to this point, it was a request that
deserved to be honored. |
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Released in 1979, this is another excellent
album that continued ARS' popular success and documents the band
continuing to make quality music-even though the critical and
popular tide that had swelled through the late 1970s had reached
its peak. The album features eight original songs, one of them
incorporating a well known Ashford & Simpson song. The tone of
this collection is softer, as only a couple of songs truly rock
out, but the songwriting and musicianship continues at the superior
levels the group had established previously. While two songs would
break out as singles, overall it's another superior set of tunes.