After the uncommercial prog adventure with "Super Active Wizzo" album Roy Wood had a hard time finding support from the label for a continuance. Luckily Warner Bros. executive Mo Ostin was a fan and through his intervention Wood got the chance to record one more solo album. So this is not on the same page as his contemporary Wizzo Band, instead it should be counted as a follow-up to "Boulders" and "Mustard"...and that is pretty much what you get. Production and audio differs, coming through mellower and more radio friendly, but all the rest is like it was. There are guest performances by Renaissance's lead singer Annie Haslam and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, apart from that Wood himself does all voices, plays at least twentythree different instruments and of course responsible for all songwriting, arrangements and production. When it comes to catchy songs, sincere vocals and experimenting with genre switches and odd instrumentations I get flashbacks from earlier solo albums, Wizzard and The Move. Title song happy melodic disco with bossa brass. "Wings Over The Sea" in a shape that could have been late Move. "Road Rocket" rock revival and "Keep Your Hands On The Wheel" has a Beach Boys feeling - if you can imagine that supported by hard hitting Bonham drums. "Jimmy Lad" sentimental with bag pipes and album ending with a slow tear breaker - "Way Beyond The Rain". The record didn't sell a lot on release and still underappreciated. I guess many fans of Wood's earlier work passed it by because of his intermediate prog adventures and the dull cover. But if you try it sometime you'll find there was a lot of good Wood left. Originally released in US and Germany (WB 56591). 2007 CD reissue on Wounded Bird Records (WOU 3247). First US had label as shown here and matt cover with lyric inner. (RÖWS*) (YZÄ*)
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