Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green (1970 Blues-Rock)

Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After's recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee's signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish. Cricklewood Green opens with a pair of bluesy rockers, with "Working on the Road" propelled by a guitar and organ riff that holds the listener's attention through the use of tape manipulation as the song develops. "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "Love Like a Man" are classics of TYA's jam genre, with lyrically meaningless verses setting up extended guitar workouts that build in intensity, rhythmically and sonically. The latter was an FM-radio staple in the early '70s. "Year 3000 Blues" is a country romp sprinkled with Lee's silly sci-fi lyrics, while "Me and My Baby" concisely showcases the band's jazz licks better than any other TYA studio track, and features a tasty piano solo by Chick Churchill. It has a feel similar to the extended pieces on side one of the live album Undead. "Circles" is a hippie-ish acoustic guitar piece, while "As the Sun Still Burns Away" closes the album by building on another classic guitar-organ riff and more sci-fi sound effects.

AMG Review by Jim Newsom

Ten Years After - Watt (1970 Blues Rock)

Watt had many of the same ingredients as its predecessor, Cricklewood Green, but wasn't nearly as well thought out. The band had obviously spent much time on the road, leaving little time for developing new material. Consequently, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen," recorded live at the Isle of Wight Festival, is included here, as is a short instrumental with the uninspired title "The Band With No Name." Other song titles like "I Say Yeah" and "My Baby Left Me" betray the lack of spark in Alvin Lee's songwriting. Nonetheless, his guitar work is fast and clean (though the licks are beginning to sound repetitive from album to album), and the band continues to cook in the manner exemplified best on Cricklewood Green.

AMG Review by Jim Newsom

Ten Years After - Goin' Home! (1975 Classic Rock Compilation)

Hear Me Calling
Going To Try
Love Like A Man
No Title
I Woke Up This Morning
Woodchoppers Ball
I'm Going Home

Ten Years After - Rock & Roll Music to the World (Classic Rock 1972)

Here, Ten Years After expanded on their boogie base and continued the hits. The title cut was the hit, and while they continued to groove along in the boogie atmosphere, things on Rock & Roll Music to the World sounded a bit too tame for the thundering hordes to chant along to at the time. "Turned Off T.V. Blues" showed just how tiring touring was getting for the band, and there wasn't much else here to bring out the beast to party with. A little too much of the same thing was starting to stunt this band's growth, except in their wallets.

AMG Review by James Chrispell