About Mountain's third album, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that they have finally recorded a quality set of live rock & roll. The bad news here concerns a type of artsy-fartsy lyricism that pervades the new studio-recorded material.

The live side of this record strongly resembles Mountain's midnight set at the Fillmore East on the night of its closing and may indeed have been recorded there on that fateful eve in June (the liner notes give no historical information). The tone and fidelity here are not as good as the usual live albums recorded at the Fillmores because the side contains almost 29 minutes of music. An increase in volume, however, adequately compensates for this slight technical deficiency. Mountain's performance is uncommonly thoughtful and cohesive. Leslie West in particular plays with restraint and indulges in few excesses. The flow from his introductory guitar passage through a raucous version of "Roll Over Beethoven" into an exposition and variations on "Dreams of Milk and Honey" is the work of a fine performing band.

What happened, then, when Mountain entered the studio to record side one for Flowers of Evil? All the spirit and energy present in the live set is absent from songs like "Pride and Passion" and "Crossroaders." Is this the same band that recorded "Mississippi Queen" and "Don't Look Around?" Where are those effective marriages of music and verse that graced "My Lady" and "Theme for an Imaginary Western"? No offense to Felix Pappalardi or his wife and lyricist Gail Collins, but wispy stuff like "One Last Cold Kiss" belongs not in Mountain's repertoire. I applaud these efforts to expand the group's stylistic range, but I kinda wish Mountain would stick with that rowdy rock & roll music for a while, they are so much better at it. (RS 106)

JOHN KOEGEL