Wishbone Ash
Number the Brave

Eleventh album by the British quartet: with the eighties well underway, all the obsessions about the need to be accessible, commercial, and uncomplicated, the leap compared to their previous work “Just Testing” is remarkable in terms of sound, equalization, production, and song structure. All the melodies are simplified and, at the same time, highlighted as the folk and progressive "trimmings" are eliminated.

And the bassist changes... Martin Turner leaves and is replaced by ubiquitous John Wetton (Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, UK up to that moment!) in Wishbone. He would be by far the best voice available to the group, given the limited vocal abilities of guitarists Andy Powell and Laurie Wisefield; however, his one-time presence makes little impact... probably because by the time he arrived, the songs were already well prepared and arranged. John manages to add one of his compositions and performs it. It's actually guitarist Powell who is the first choice for lead vocals: something that had never happened before.

But above all, Nigel Gray, then riding high with The Police, is hired as the producer. Hoping for a career boost, the group fully trusts him, resulting in very clean, shimmering, and echo-laden guitars, a significantly thinned "body" of the sound (everything had to chime and be full of highs at that time), arrangements leaning towards funk, concise instrumental parts, and no time changes, atmospheric passages, intros and outros, various long sections (only one track exceeds five minutes).

The ten tracks are almost equivalent in quality: none bad, none epic. The opener "Loaded" immediately shocks the old fans of the quartet: it sounds like the Californian Little Feat with those clean and agile funky guitars supporting Laurie Wisefield's lead vocals. "Where Is the Love" is instead a boogie, sung by Powell with Wisefield on slide; Powell has improved a lot! Probably thanks to the producer, used to a natural and clean singer like Sting, who must have pushed him hard in the studio.

"Underground" cannot be considered white reggae like The Police, but it somehow recalls them with an obsessive rhythmic figure in Andy Summers' style and here and there a bit of ah-ah, oh-oh à la Sting; Powell sings again, lively and confident. "Kicks on the Street" turns out to be very commercial, and overlookable; who sings it? Here the producer really stirs the waters, making the band sound good while simultaneously depersonalizing it even vocally. "Open Road" always interpreted by Powell, is also bolstered by synthesizers (an abomination!... for a band quintessentially focused on guitars); super funky and again reminiscent of Little Feat, with all those lean and agile Stratocasters.

There's also a cover, and the song is well-known: it's "Get Ready" a hit by Smokey Robinson, first rhythm & blues in the Temptations' 1966 version, then rock in Rare Earth's fortunate reinterpretation in 1970. Powell sings it and... ahem... Rare Earth did it better!

From this point, after the middle of the album, the less new wave tracks begin, let's put it that way: "Rainstorm" is a pointed rock blues, sung (so-so) by Wisefield, who seems to have a cold here, the sound being nasal. Finally, there's a shower of guitars, for the first time on the record. "That’s That" which follows is the one composed and sung by Wetton, it rushes like an arrow and... it sounds like "Easy Livin" by Uriah! The late Wetton was very fond of Heep's distinctive chorus style, and here he cheekily replicates it... Perhaps the song was an outtake from the work done with them shortly before, who knows. Thus, strong and resonant choruses surround his powerful voice, distinct from the two guitarists' small voices, and the piece is clearly driven by his (mixed too high) bass; Wishbone is completely unrecognizable in this episode.

"Roller Coaster" is sung by Wisefield and is a pleasant funky blues, while the eponymous song closing the album, with Powell on the mic again, has synthesizers popping up here and there (in Wetton’s hands), inflating the soundscape and trying to embellish a not-so-interesting melodic development.

Album "nice," if you will, quite a break due to an unprecedented pop simplification for Wishbone, concentrated mostly in the first tracks. The hedonism of the eighties here gets its umpteenth tribute... in particular, the guitars, though massively present and even more busy than usual, and without ever a sparse and gentle moment as always happened in the past, this time they sound a tad homogenized and especially thin, lacking in bass, overproduced.

The 1981 Wishbone Ash of this work are still recognizable, yet decidedly in transition. It is difficult to weigh a firm judgment. Vigorously pulled by the bad trends that will increasingly affirm themselves in that unfortunate decade, and by the pop taste of their new producer, aimed at contaminating their pure rockers' melodic heart, the band deserves three stars at most on this occasion. However, the album is produced much better than their historical standard, the songs are compact, and the melodies, though simple, are striking and render many of them easily memorable... In short, the usual three and a half stars, a seven in the report card.