Creedence Clearwater Revival - Pendulum

Yes, I've been on a CCR kick as I have been reading Fogerty's autobiography (more on that when I have finished it). This was their second to last album and the final one with John's brother Tom, who left for a solo career as the band was already splintering at this point. Regardless, it is still a fine piece of work by the band.

A first for here is the concentration on extra instruments, including keyboards (by John and bassist Stu) and horns (all played by John), and a lack of any covers songs - the first time that all songs were written by Fogerty.

One of my many faves, "Pagan Baby" opens the record with a rockin' blast of traditional Fogerty swampy-blues-rock sounds with a hip jam at the end, giving no indication of the changes to follow. "Sailor's Lament", though, is a quieter, keyboard-laden song, that somehow does sound like the sea, with its melodic, harmony-driven call'n'answer tune - and here John adds a sax solo. Maybe not one of their best, but an interesting tangent from their usual music. They pull off a funky, soulful Stax-like number in "Chameleon", with John providing an entire horn section to great effect, followed by another huge hit, the ballad "Have You Ever Seen the Rain", which is highlighted by the addition of piano and organ, which adds to its plaintive sounds. Side one of the vinyl concludes with the mournful, organ-filled lament "(Wish I Could) Hideaway".

Flip over the record and another upbeat, horns'n'keys funky groove dominates "Born To Move" that turns into a Booker T and the MG's-styled jam before we get the big rockin' smash from the record, "Hey Tonight", another more typical CCR r'n'r classic. John gets sweetly moody again (with more nice organ work) in "It's Just a Thought", "Molina" is somewhat lightweight, but another more typical slice of CCR (although with keys and sax), and then the finale is a big departure for them - an instrumental described as "avant garde psychedelia", it starts with an almost classical phrase, that adds a rock beat and then fades into a sound experiment and random noise, something they never did before or after.

Looking back, it seems apparent that there were changes going on within the band, but despite its flaws, this is, overall, a strong record. Certainly not their best, but interesting work and if they had not fallen apart, this might have indicated a cool, new-ish direction that they could have followed.