Raspberries - debut

 

Again, pulled these out after hearing of Eric Carmen's recent passing and wanted to review the two records that I have of his band. At least on this record they look fairly r'n'r hip on the cover, unlike the horrible leisure suits on Fresh!

This debut opens with the 70's power-pop classic anthem, "Go All The Way", a truly great pop tune with rockin' guitars that oddly is followed by a kinda calypso-ish tune from their lead guitarist, Wally, titled "Come Around and See Me", before we get a quiet ballad by Eric and Wally in "I Saw the Light", then the unimaginatively titled "Rock and Roll Mama", which is kinda their take on 70's guitar boogie, before side one ends with and Eric number, "Waiting", another piano ballad.

Side two starts off with some vaguely classical-styled piano in the power ballad "Don't Want To Say Goodbye", which apparently hit the charts at #86, but it was certainly eclipsed by the considerably more rockin' "Go All The Way". "With You In My Life" is a not very successful Vaudeville/Beatles bit of silliness, while "Get It Moving" sounds like Badfinger when they were boogieing (not a bad thing), and it all concludes with "I Can Remember", with Eric once again giving a piano'n'strings ballad that does pick up about half way through this 8 minute epic. His ballads aren't terrible but also aren't great - wish he had stuck with the power-pop guitar tunes!

Very uneven record and reminds me that I always thought that they were a very uneven band. Some excellent moments but all too much just doesn't work for me. Such is life!