Alvin Lee - Let It Rock (1978/1999)

Side A: 
01. Chemicals, Chemistry, Mystery and More 
02. Love the Way You Rock Me 
03. Ain’t Nobody 
04. Images Shifting 
05. Little Boy

Side B: 
01. Downhill Lady Racer 
02. World Is Spinning Faster 
03. Through With Your Lovin’ 
04. Time To Meditate 
05. Let It Rock

Bonus:
1. Snake Jam
2. Break  Jam

Personnel: 
Alvin Lee (vocals, guitar); 
Zoot Money (piano); 
Alan Spenner (bass); 
John Susswell (drums); 
Dyan Birch, Frank Collins, Paddie McHugh (background vocals).

Pretty solid record, although, as is usual with Alvin, it takes some time to grow on you. This time there are no saxes or flutes tampering with the raw atmosphere, no weird experimental passages, just straight ahead rock’n'roll with little ornaments. This is compensated by rawness, inspiration and a special edge in the delivery that is able to inflame even the most generic blues number. This is really one heavy record, in the sense that it really wears down on you. “Let It Rock” sure is not an album to have some good clean fun; rather when you’re weary and sick of the world and want somebody to empathize. There are plenty of nice guitar lines everywhere, some of which are quite soulful. And he’s very rarely content with playing a typical blues or blues-rock number in a “by-the-book” way: perhaps the closest to a “by-the-book” blues-rocker on the album is ‘Through With Your Loving’, but that exact number actually begs to be cranked up loud and proud, with extremely sharp, jagged guitar playing and fiery, raunchy vocals.

Elsewhere, you get a bunch of “philosophic introspective” ballads that plunge us into typical moody, “deep-produced” atmosphere. ‘Chemicals, Chemistry, Mystery And More’ is almost Santanaesque in its structure and contains quite a few endearing vocal hooks. ‘Time To Meditate’ is one truly excellent way to make you go to sleep, with sparkling moonlight guitar lines and dreamy female backup vocals. Even the somewhat aggressive, lightly phased guitar solo that gradually picks up steam isn’t at all disturbing – making up for a solid mood piece. The rockers on here, contradicting the title, are hardly disturbing either. Too many of them are in “soft barroom” style, with a hint of gloominess and melancholy running throughout: ‘Love The Way You Rock Me’ with its wonderful ‘ooo-ooh, love the way you rock me when you roll…’ incantation; the way ‘Little Boy’ starts out with that driving harmonica pattern and thought-provoking descending guitar riffs; the hilarious modulation of Alvin’s voice on ‘Downhill Lady Racer’. The undoubted highlight ‘The World Is Spinning Faster’, another one of those quasi apocalyptic numbers, replete with a magnificent looping riff in between the verse lines and a sharp solo on the fade-out — it has a special grandeur and solemnity of its own that are unmistakable. --- sakalli.info

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