Roy Wood
Boulders

It is 1973, and the first solo album by Roy Wood, the leader of the great yet underrated "The Move" and the composer of memorable songs like "Blackberry Way" (brought to success in Italy by Equipe 84 with the translation "Tutta mia la città") "Fire Brigade" and "Flowers in the rain", is released. In truth, the album was already ready and recorded at the end of 1969 but remained unpublished due to conflicts of interest with his group and his record label.

What immediately strikes us is the freshness of the songs, with brilliant melodies and very interesting arrangements with instruments of all kinds... And here our Roy proves his mastery of multi-instrumentalism by playing ALL the imaginable instruments: Strings, Winds, Dulcimer, Banjo, in addition to the usual Piano, Bass, Drums, and Guitars.... The album opener is "Song of prey" a lovely song somewhat in the style of Brian Wilson (a significant influence on our Roy) with an extravagant overdubbed choir (that recurs throughout the album) with sped-up voices.

Next is "Wake up", another splendid song, with a progression somewhat McCartney-like, in which a water bucket appears as a percussion instrument...! The melody, as always, is splendid, supported by a nice array of various types of flutes that happily "counterpoint" the voice... "Nancy sing me a song" is undoubtedly the most catchy piece of the collection, where Wood's musical style emerges in all its splendor: the chorus is simply memorable, and the arrangement is simple and effective, with a nice fretless bass adding color to the whole.

"Dear Elaine" is the most elaborate arrangement of the album: strings of all kinds and medieval stringed instruments echo, catapulting us back in time a thousand years, while the usual sped-up choirs chase impossible notes over the beautiful melody of this ballad. A truly unique track in terms of atmosphere, especially thanks to the arrangement.. "Miss Clarke and the computer" is the most unsettling track of the album, where a defective computer begs its creator not to reset it and thus kill it... All sung by Roy Wood with a pseudo-computer voice over a completely acoustic accompaniment, which adds even more ambiguity to the piece.. The masterstroke arrives at the end of the track where the computer's voice sings, slowing down and fading more and more "Don't taake myy heaaart Awaaaaayyyyy".... chilling...

In "When Gran'ma Plays The Banjo" we are catapulted from the Victorian atmosphere of the previous track to a dusty Saloon in the Far West, where on a frenzied Bluegrass we are overwhelmed by a cascade of virtuosic Banjo by Roy, who proves to be a great virtuoso even on this instrument..

In short, a great album for a great Artist unfortunately unjustly forgotten and underappreciated, which deserves to be listened to for the quantity of ideas and musical cues. A must-have.