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Ken Barnes

Reporter

  • Heroes Are Hard To Find

    After a brief identity crisis (another band usurping their identities), the real Fleetwood Mac is back on record. They've still got the same smooth soft-rock sound they've had for three years, since Jeremy Spencer found religion (or vice versa). The group's gone a little funkier in places, which turns out both annoying ("Born Enchanter," "Angel") […]

    • Music
  • Light Of Love

    Unexpectedly, Marc Bolan is back. Under his egotistical leadership, T. Rex had headed straight down with two consecutive albums of trivial, leaden shush. In England he'd been overtaken in the pop idolatry sweepstakes by Sweet, Slade, Mud, Mott and even the Rubettes. His increasingly vainglorious pronouncements failed to mask the decline.   But with Light […]

    • Music
  • Mr. Natural

    It's been difficult to understand how the Bee Gees can consistently come off so unflaggingly moronic on television and still make good music. But, although their last three LP's (with scattered exceptions) seemed determined to prove they'd lost the knack, Mr. Natural is a different story. There's a vigor which has been missing from recent […]

    • Music
  • Queen II

    Queen is a reasonably talented band who have chosen their models unwisely. On "Side Black," they venture into a lyrically muddled fairy-tale world with none of Genesis's wit or sophistication. They've also appropriated the most irritating elements of Yes's style — histrionic vocals, abrupt and pointless compositional complexity, and a dearth of melody. "Side White" […]

    • Music
  • Burn

    Deep Purple's first album since last year's departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist/composer Roger Glover is a passable but disappointing effort. On Burn, new lead singer David Coverdale sounds suitably histrionic, like Free's brilliant Paul Rodgers (rumored to have been Purple's first replacement choice). But the new material is largely drab and ordinary, without […]

    • Music
  • Best Of The Animals

    With the Fifties rehashed past the point of musical surfeit, the rich body of Sixties rock must now have its day. Important innovations like surf music and the girl-group sound (particularly Phil Spector's creations) have already been resurrected. And now the music of the crucial, nearly ten-year-old British invasion, so significant in revitalizing the spirit […]

    • Music
  • Life In A Tin Can

    As purveyors of pure pop pleasantries over the past six years, the Bee Gees have few rivals extant and their popularity has continued virtually unabated. But after an initial barrage of arresting singles and a generally solid album track record (up to their fine double set Odessa), their music has declined. With elaborate orchestral arrangements […]

    • Music