LITTLE RIVER BAND : LITTLE RIVER BAND |
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Label : Harvest Release Date : November 1975 Length : 45:07 Review (AllMusic) : An Australian sextet, Little River Band's debut album sounds as American as anything by the Eagles or the Doobie Brothers, and is driven by "It's a Long Way There" - whose eight and a half minutes of crunchy electric guitars, luminous acoustic guitar, and smooth harmonizing is spread across a musically dramatic arc that is worth every second of its running time. This is an astonishingly strong debut album. There aren't any surprises, just seven more eminently enjoyable if slightly looser structured mainstream rock songs in the same vein, inventive where they had to be (like on the solos or the variations on the extended choruses), all more modestly proportioned than the hit and thoroughly enjoyable. Guitarist Graham Goble dominated the songwriting with the single and "I Know It," but singer Glenn Shorrock contributed significantly with the delightfully exuberant "Emma" and the hauntingly beautiful movie-within-a-song "The Man in Black," and guitarist Beeb Birtles showed himself no slouch in the ballad department with "I'll Always Call Your Name," which overstays its welcome by about 30 seconds but is otherwise nice and catchy. [The remastering job on the 2001 reissue by Australian EMI is also first-rate, capturing the group's loud, punchy sound and decent annotation about the band's roots and origins.] Review (Wikipedia) : Little River Band is the debut studio album by the Australian rock group Little River Band which was released by EMI in November 1975. It peaked at No. 17 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and was certified 2× gold in Australia in November 1976. It was released in the US by Harvest in September 1976. The band's first single, "Curiosity (Killed the Cat)", was released in September 1975, ahead of the album and peaked at No. 15 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The following single, "Emma" was released in December 1975 and peaked at No. 20. In August 1976, an edited version of "It's a Long Way There" was released as the band lead single international and the third single in Australia. It reached the Australian Top 40 and became the band's first US Top 40 hit. It also charted in Netherlands to reach No. 14. "I'll Always Call Your Name" was released in early 1977 in North America only as the album's fourth and final single. |