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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
From out of the Jeff Beck Group, on which his talents shone through as an extremely distinctive singer, Rod Stewart began his own solo career in 1969 with this debut, originally titled An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, but in America, the title was changed for some reason. While the song material isn't quite as powerful as a few of his later successes, a lot of these same elements are already in place - the sound is basically an entertaining and even sort of unique take on acoustic-driven rock & roll, folk, and blues, with those awesome pipes up front. But then, everyone who's ever heard any of Rod's prime era songs (and even some of his later stuff) knows of his considerable singing talent, which often does lift the material to greater heights. The more lively stuff here also sounds like it was performed at a wild party, which also adds to its' appeal. In short, a fun album.
The formula here is split between Rod's own originals and cover versions, both of which have their moments. In fact, the opening song is a fantastic demonstration of his considerable ability for reinterpreting others' material as he rips through the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man" (which also might be guitarist Ron Wood's first appearance on a Stones song. It's definitely one of the most interesting things here, with powerful slide guitars, loud drumming, a more folksy rearrangement of the melody, and more of an emphasis on the bassline at the end of each chorus. It also goes without saying the vocals are great (probably even more intense than Jagger's), and when it switches to something closer to the original arrangement in the second half, the result is a treat. Cool stuff.
The best of the originals, and maybe the album by a slim margin, is almost undoubtedly "Blind Prayer". This song may not have that great of a vocal melody, but that's more than made up for when you consider everything else around the song - Rod tells an intense, gripping tale in the lyrics, and the rest of the band is tight. I'd say there's no other song on the album that better describes the cool displayed here than that one. As much as the other rockers like the rough and bluesy "Cindy's Lament" (which takes a similar approach to intriguing lyrical storytelling and terrific vocals) and "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" are exciting, they admittedly pale in comparison to those two better songs in memorability and power, although they're still solid tracks any way you look at them.
There are also a few ballads on here, and they're not quite as worthwhile as the rockers. At worst, though, even the slightly sappy stuff like "Handbags And Gladrags" (which does admittedly sound pretty bland coming right after "Blind Prayer") is hardly that bad, as the melody and delivery is still nice. Even the more generic songs like the pure folk of "Man Of Constant Sorrow" are pleasant, as is the closing "Dirty Old Town", with a lovely acoustic melody carrying it along. Plus, I find Rod's duet with his producer in the middle of "I Wouldn't Ever Change A Thing" a charming idea, if somewhat of a hilariously random and corny one, but I guess it adds to the overall fun here (don't forget the rest of the song's great bassline, either!) There isn't a whole lot more I could say about the album, especially since it's only 32 minutes long and both the ballads and rockers pretty much follow their own same individual, often unmemorable, formula, but it's still consistently enjoyable and pretty close to a 7.5.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Widely regarded as Rod Stewart's finest moment (it's certainly a favorite among critics), his third album is a solid and beautifully warm listening experience whose songs flow together seamlessly as a whole. Rod's vocal performance, of course, carries practically all the material, with his passionate gravelly style that frequently displays a great amount of charisma, but his backing band, including his partner Ronnie Lane, certainly holds out, with solid, entertaining energy to the uptempo songs on here and particularly notable basslines that really come through well in the mix. It should also be noted, too, that only three of the songs here are Rod originals, but since everything on the album shares such a unifying mood and that vocal presence is absolutely distinctive, I actually couldn't tell any of them were covers besides the traditional "Amazing Grace" (since the credits weren't mentioned in the liner notes).
As for the three originals on here, two of them have long become radio standards, and as highlights of the whole album they're certainly deserving of that honor. The opening 6 minute title track is an really engaging and flowing tale of various women Rod encountered around the world, done effectively over the strong, stripped-down sound and that chant of 'every picture tells a story, don't it' at the end of the song. There's also the classic "Maggie May", which does a really great job of conveying the heartbreak of the ultimate emptyness of falling in love with an older woman in the lyrics - the musical backing here is simple, but that probably contributes to the song itself grabbing at your soul so well, and that gorgeous instrumental break is all worth it. The last original, "Tomorrow Is A Long Time", is probably the most unmemorable thing on here, but it sounds pleasant while it's on, and it's certainly not bad, especially with the beautiful violin near the end of it.
The remainder of the songs here, then, are all solid interpretations of old standards. The best of these is probably the breathtaking "Mandolin Wind", which paints an extremely pretty landscape with the combination of that instrument and Rod's vocals, making for a truly timeless performance. "That's All Right" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You" are almost as good, though, the former with pure fabulous rockin' energy and a great bass-driven groove, and the latter featuring Rod giving it his all vocally as if those words were his own. The brief two minute rendition of the aforementioned universally recognized "Amazing Grace" is rather pretty, too, with wonderful slide guitar building up to the vocal portions here perfectly.
Elsewhere, the slow ballad "Seems Like A Long Time", meanwhile, is probably a bit generic and is only really memorable in its' choir bits in the chorus, but again, like everything else here, it's pleasant and inoffensive. Much like the closing "Reason To Believe", which also suffers from a lack of distinguishing melody, apart from the powerful vocals in the 'someone like you...' refrain (which even then may take a couple listens to sink in). In all, I basically enjoy the entire album quite a lot while it's playing - the mood is extremely inviting, and a great singer can be heard making all of this material into his own almost effortlessly. Most of the performances here rise above consistently very good, with a couple classic or near classic moments, with the album only being marred a bit by a lack of strong melodies. A wonderfully comforting experience in all, though.
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COMMENTS
Rod's finest hour without a doubt, although having said that probably all of his Mercury label albums and his Faces work from this period are a cut above what was to follow. Rod turned out to be one of the greatest ever wastes of a unique vocal talent by eventually selling out to the commercial masses, but this album displays him still with some credibility and fundamentally at his peak. Solid performances throughout and "Maggie May", "Mandolin Wind" and "Every Picture Tells a Story" are rightly regarded as the main standout tracks. The title track is an absolute stormer, a throbbing, driving rhythm balanced with great lyrics and an intense vocal performance. The Georgia Satellites later made a reasonable cover of "Every Picture" but pound for pound it totally lacked the passion and energy of Rod's original. A great album and really what Rod should be remembered for, unfortunately his reputation (at least in the UK) was brought down to gutter level with his dire 80's and 90's output, and that I fear will be his legacy.
(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
When listening to a fairly bad album (Tormato), or even a really bad one (Free At Last), I usually keep the rating a point or so above what the album might have deserved otherwise because I have the advantage of saying that it was not a particularly painful experience and that there have been worse. I'm not sure I can do that this time. Camouflage is the very definition of "prime shit." I don't even think Zooropa or even Three Dollar Bill Y'all$ are THIS bad. At least Zooropa was just extremely dull and nothing too painful to listen to, and Bill did have potential in "Everything," but Camouflage has....nothing. Nothing good, that is. There are about thirty-six minutes of horrifically atrocious donkey shit, flowing with the most awful and annoying "tunes" you could imagine.
I don't even want to go too deeply into the songs, since they were just so goddamn awful. There's always some corny synths backing them, and occasionally some horns to make things even worse. The opening "Infatuation" clearly demonstrates this with such a wretched bunch of horns before the chours, ruining anything decent that might have been there. It flat out sucks. But here's something that should really scare you. "Infatuation" is the least shitty song on the eight song record, meaning there are seven more that are even worse than the opener. For example track 2, "All Right Now," is certainly one of the very very WORST covers ever done in the history of rock music. It's heavy on the synths with this electronic beat that is just so pitiful. The rest are all still downhill from there, until it all hits rock bottom with the title track, which I won't say a thing about since I'm trying as hard as I can to forget it as fast as possible.
I kinda feel bad, though, posting the first Rod Stewart review on Music Junkies Anonymous for this one. Sorry Rod Stewart fans of the world. I did use mp3s to review this album, and I will say that my favorite moment was the sound of the modem logging me onto the web. The high-pitched noisy beeps were such a refreshing break from this load of junk. I think I've found my new bet for worst album ever. Hell, compared to this one Three Dollar Bill is a masterpiece. When I first started writing for this site I never thought I'd end up giving out a rating this low. I'm in a generous mood, though, so the album gets a 0, which is more than it deserves.
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COMMENTS
You know, I just thought of this great idea: Burn this album onto a blank CD, label it as an obscure black metal album and give it to that obnoxious metalhead jerk who keeps calling you a posuer and watch as he convulses in horror when he listens to it on his Discman. Or better yet, label it as the unreleased upcoming boyband album and give it to some 11-year old girl in an Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt... on second thought would probably NOT result in the desired effect.
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