Traffic - Traffic - Review

← 107

109 →

With this record, Traffic started drifting in the jazz/folk direction that later ruined it. The studio trickery is gone, but the songwriting steps up to fill the gap, and a loose, partying atmosphere draws the listener in. Mason comes down long enough to produce some of his best tunes ever, like the catchy, oddly introspective sing-along anthems "Feelin' Alright" and "Cryin' To Be Heard"; and the Winwood-Capaldi axis is also in good form, contributing some soulful R & B numbers dressed up with impenetrably bizarre lyrics (the picaresque "Pearly Queen"; the unforgettable "40,000 Headmen"). Despite some dull moments that border on bathos ("No Time to Live"), it's a solid record in the great 1960s British pop tradition.

John Alroy
Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews

This site includes lengthy, humorless reviews of about 5,000 records, with separate pages on several hundred artists. They are mostly the fault of John Alroy (JA) and David Bertrand Wilson (DBW). Jed Leigh Mosenfelder also contributed pages on the Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth. CLIFFE helped with the graphics. Our newest record review pages cover everything from Hollies to the Clash to Janelle Monáe to Gary Numan. If anyone can see a coherent theme in that little list, we'd love to hear about it.

warr.org

Wiki for mobiles view

Care to share?

(if so, thanks!)