Argent - Encore [UK]

This album, originally released as a double LP in early 1975, was supposed to buy a little time for Argent as the group worked two new members, John Verity and John Grimaldi, into its lineup in the wake of the departure of co-founder Russ Ballard. As a result, it showcased a band that had already evolved out of the sound represented here, which must have seemed a pity for the fans who bought it. The sound captured on this album combines equal measures of progressive rock and hard-driving pop/rock into a whole that never lost its sight on rock & roll, as on "Thunder and Lightning" and "Music of the Spheres," or the more traditional sound of "Keep on Rollin'." With Ballard's guitar and the rhythm section of Jim Rodford (bass) and Bob Henrit (drums), the band could only stray so far from rock, and they and keyboardist Rod Argent, pulling in those opposite directions, ended up creating a scintillating whole on much of this record. Read More