COLOSSEUM/VALENTYNE SUITE VO1 (-69) UK

For group background, other albums and related stuff - check earlier posts here http://monolover.blogspot.se/search?q=colosseum . I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but since my own opinions about the LP shifted through the years I'm having a hard time getting it right once and for all. Back then it meant a lot to me. First contact was "The Kettle", played at a local disco early 1970. I couldn't get the song out of my head and bought the album for my next allowance. Everything with it was intriguing - cover design, label (it was the first on Vertigo swirl) and of course the music. The tunes were rather complicated, but still beautiful and with just enough rock'n'roll to attract the seventeen y.o. As the group developed the coming two years I followed every step through new settings and expressions. And even if I reckoned some of the later stuff downright magic, this was for a long time my favorite. However today I don't find it as exciting as "Daughter Of Time" or the live album. That doesn't mean I dislike it, just the group got even better from then on and rapidly moved from excellence to perfection. That said - two tracks from this will always be on my Colosseum top list. "The Kettle" with its remarkable flow and "The Machine Demands A Sacrifice" beacause of Litherland's and Greenslade's emotive vocals. Even if it's not their absolutely best, it still trounces most other albums of the period. US Dunhill issues of their first two LP:s followed a totally different agenda. 1969 releases also in Holland and Germany. First UK had B-side label as shown here - with "A Philips Record Product" on bottom. It came in a thick fold/out cover and "swirl" inner sleeve. (CÖL*)(WLÖ*)