The Guess Who: Canned Wheat : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The Guess Who are from the Canadian midwest, as their hypes have endlessly stressed, and there is a certain flaxen warmth and sunny clarity to their music. With a fine hit single, "Undun," behind them, they're quite refreshing in the wake of all the heavy metal robots of the year past, and would be even more pleasurable if they didn't sound a mite too much like the Airplane (instrumentally) and the Springfield (vocally and often instrumentally). "No Time" is a soaring riff with all of the Airplane's drive and none of their pretensions, but songs like "Minstrel Boy" sound so much like the Springfield's brand of the sad bittersweet ballad it's almost embarrassing. Still, in the absence of their great inspiration, the Guess Who carry the torch admirably. Digging it is, I suppose, a matter of personal taste and morality. I'll take it and be satisfied—they have the musical accomplishments to let us hope that the next album might find them singing their very own song.