Freeport (1970)

Record collectors can be a strange lot, especially when you're talking about collectors of any one particular style or sub-genre. If you have a record that's somewhat rare, you're usually glad to find a handful of others who are familiar with it, so that you can compare notes.

At the same time, you don't want to let the secret completely out. After all, you worked a long time, and invested a lot of money, to find a copy. Why should someone else be able to find a lost treasure for a fraction of the effort that you went to? Yeah, that's a pretty heinous attitude, but we've all been guilty of it at some point. Even folks who should know better.

The only review that I've ever read for this album dismissed it as "disappointing and directionless". This was from a source that is usually right on the money. This time, though, someone must have substituted the disc in the jacket marked "Freeport". That's the only way I could reconcile the fact that they thought this absolute gem was substandard.

I mean, I try not to get caught up in hyperbole, but between the dueling guitar leads, pounding keyboards, and intricate harmonies, I can't describe Freeport as anything but a monster!

Want hard-rock, 1970 style? Try "Forty Long Faces" or "It's a Brand New Morning". Power-pop more your style? How about an upbeat cover of Eric Carmen's "I Need Your Lovin'". Ballads? "Lend a Hand" and "Call Yourself the Wind" are both more than worthy. The only thing keeping the album from five stars is the fact that not all the tracks are equally memorable. One senses that the band's best work was still ahead of them, or would have been had they not dissolved soon after this release.

It has to be more than simple difference of opinion that accounts for the negative review mentioned above. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the reviewer was simply trying to keep the goodies to himself.

I don't have that problem. This album compares favorably with the debuts by Listening and Gypsy, and I hope everybody who might be interested gets to hear this. (review by ochsfan @ rateyourmusic.com)

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