Freedom - Freedom (British Psychedelia 1970)

Freedom's third album, originally issued in 1970 and reissued on CD in 2000 by Angel Air, is dire period British hard rock in the power trio format. While there's occasional laid-back reflective songwriting amongst the largely original material, its lumpy rhythms and unexceptional melodies make it hard to say much of anything about it, really, except to note that it's easy to envision them as a support act on any number of shows and tours of the era. The numbers emphasizing vocal harmonies are at least inoffensive (if boring), which can't be said of their outings into boogie blues-rock and proto-metal (as on the title track) that really grate. It might have been a cool idea in 1970 to cover the Standells' "Dirty Water," which wasn't a hit in Britain and wasn't yet fashionable as a garage band standard. It is not cool, however, to retitle the song "Frustrated Woman" and take the songwriting credits, as the members do even on the sleeve of the 2000 CD release.

AMG Review by Richie Unterberger

Freedom - Black on White (British Psychedelia 1968)

Although this was recorded and released as the soundtrack to a 1968 Italian soft pornography film, it holds up pretty well as a proper album. While Freedom's sound wasn't too original, often sounding much like Traffic and Procol Harum, the songs are pretty strong and the playing quite good. If you collect British psychedelia from this period, you can tell right away that these guys were at a higher level than the average such collectable outfit which only did a couple singles or an album; items like "Seeing Is Believing" and "Born Again" would have fit in pretty well on the Chocolate Soup for Diabetics compilations of rare British '60s psych. Mike Lease's classical-influenced organ and piano are especially imaginative, and sometimes they come up with tracks that escape the Procol/Traffic comparisons, like the melodic "The Better Side," with its tasteful dots of orchestration, and "The Butt of Deception," an extremely wry and British tune reminiscent of Ray Davies' late-1960s songs for the Kinks. The CD adds three alternate versions and mixes not available on the rare original LP; it doesn't have anything from their two rare singles, though.

AMG Review by Richie Unterberger