Been waiting for this album for a long time? Got yourself all hot and bothered because of Paul Rodgers' vocalizing and Simon Kirke's drumming with Bad Company, or possibly Andy Fraser's bass comping with Sharks? Well, cool down a trifle. It's a good collection but a couple of cuts on the first side spoil the overall effect. There's the silly near-acoustic instrumental, "Mouthful of Grass," which sounds sorely misplaced among the patented Free -- full of balls, soul, blues, and rock numbers.

Original album advertising art. Click image for larger view.

And then there are slapdash renditions of "My Brother Jake" and "The Hunter" from the hasty, ill-fated Free Live! album, all of which sounded slightly out-of-control. Control, you see, was one of the keys to Free's musical success. Controlled tension, that is, matched with wailing, charcoal gray vocals by Rodgers and dense, rudimentary, lowslung instrumentation, with moments of silence for punctuation. In fact, the group produced the perfect combination of Brit-rock and Brit-blues. Solid. Simple. Dirty. Ballsy as hell. Emotional yet somehow reserved. Aside from the aforementioned trio of tunes, this is a superior collection of representative Free numbers. The biggies are here, "All Right Now," "The Stealer," "Fire and Water," and the underrated "Woman," as well as five other winners. A reasonably good primer for any non-Free-maniac.

- Andy McKaie, Circus, 8/75.

Bonus Reviews!

Further reading on Super Seventies RockSite!: Album Review: Heartbreaker Free Lyrics Free Videos

- Billboard, 1975.

I could complain that the format automatically glosses over their austerity with an uncharacteristic catchiness, but in fact it sounds better and says more about them than their 1971 LP Highway. Just as annotator Jim Bickhart claims, the band wasn't "only effective at gut-level; it was effective as music." But often the gutty moves -- Rodgers's or Kossoff's crowd-pleasing flourishes -- weren't musical, while the arty touches -- the deliberate pace and general sense of containment -- socked you right in the cerebrum. Which is why Bad Company grandstands, and why I'm on the critical fence. B+

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

A solid compilation showcasing "All Right Now" and other semi-hits, this is a worthwhile sampler for the uninitiated. * * * *

- Dan Heilman, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

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