The 1981 Listening Post - Robin Trower, Bill Lordan and Jack Bruce - B.L.T.

 Robin Trower, Bill Lordan and Jack Bruce - B.L.T.

#64

February 1981

Robin Trower, Bill Lordan and Jack Bruce

B.L.T.

Genre: The 70s 

2.75 out of 5

As of this writing I hadn’t heard the 1980 Robin Trower record so this is my first exposure. Somehow that record got left off the 1980 list so…I’ll listen to it later.

This album is missing something. The pops and crackles of used vinyl. It shouldn’t sound this clean. This crisp. It needs to come out of a pair of oversized speakers on either side of a bedroom all connected to a state of the art, at the time, Technics turntable. (That’s the one I had)

This is all funky grooves, spot on drums and wahwah pedals. They can really bring it on tracks like “No Land Lost”. Like, these guys can play. And if what you crave is that Hendrix-is/Traffic/Sly Stone sound, they deliver. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/b-l-t/1144070541

The 1980 Listening Post - Robin Trower - Victims of the Fury

 Robin Trower - Victims of the Fury

April 1980

Robin Trower

Victims of the Fury

Genre: Blues Rock

Highlights:

Road to Freedom

As we end the year, we come upon a record that slipped through the cracks. I’m sure there were holes, there always are. In this case it was because I was listening to Trower’s 1981 record that I learned there was one in 1980 that we didn’t get to. That happens. Because the bins of Rock history are filled with records you never knew existed.

I am not familiar with Trower’s work in the previous decade. This is exactly the kind of record that fits into that early 70s Zeppelin wheelhouse. And I bet there’s an audience for it but you can feel it dating itself in the context of all that 80s stuff from the year. 

But that don’t make it not good. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/victims-of-the-fury/1142879242