Help. 1971 Decca
Second Coming. 1971 Decca
Help were a band from the Los Angeles area (appears to be near Thousand Oaks), and Second Coming is appropriately their sophomore effort. Right out of the gate we're treated to two upbeat Grand Funk styled burners, with killer wah wah guitar. This is followed by two lengthier tracks, where each also features some great guitar among some more typical "west coast" psychedelic rural songwriting. The even longer 'Dear Lord' uses the time wisely to get in some extended jamming. Jack Merrill really goes for the pedals like early Stray, which is awesome to my ears. Many reviewers call this a Christian album, but it's nothing of the sort, confirmed by at least one band member. Dear Lord is an American colloquialism that is the equivalent to the more modern use of OMG. In this one song you hear can also hear them use the phrase in the generic "answer my prayers" way. No proselytizing here. B2 continues on like A3 and A4. Album closes with the appropriately named 'Power' with perhaps too much "Power to the People" chanting and drum circle hippyisms. Overall a very strong early 70s hard rock album, the fast pacing predicting the late 70s variant of the style.
Priority: 2 (for Second Coming)
1/15/24 (review); 4/8/25 (new entry)
No comments:
Post a Comment