Since Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes left to play uninterrupted diluted Leon Russell boogie-isms with Jo Jo Gunne and Randy California (apparently) retired, the remaining members of the original Spirit have recruited two brothers, J. Christian and Al Staehely, to write, sing, and play guitar and bass. If Feedback is an accurate indication of their talents, it's doubtful that these two new copilots will ever get the group back off the ground.

Al Staehely, whose compositions make up about 80 percent of the album (the remainder being jazzy instrumental interludes by pianist John Locke), isn't much of a writer. His themes (the oppressiveness of groupies, the futility of trying to get it on with evil women, the repulsiveness of phonies), lyrical treatment thereof, and music are without exception hopelessly banal.

The group's performances match the material.

Without trying to be snide, the only thing about this album that I find even minimally interesting is its cover, which betrays roughly a trillion times more imagination than the music it encloses, which can be recommended without grave reservations only to those who ask nothing more of a record than that it sound like the work of a rock group. (RS 110)

JOHN MENDELSOHN