Time for Another / No Strings : Expanded Edition

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Cherry Red's 2011 double-disc set features Ace's second and third albums, Time for Another and No Strings, plus a disc collecting the group's BBC sessions that did not appear as bonus material on the label's reissue of Five-A-Side.
There's a knowing shrug to the title of Time for Another, Ace's second album, an admission that this is just another round, not dissimilar to another pint of bitter served up halfway into a leisurely evening at the pub. Despite several shared traits, Time for Another is distinctly different than the casually funky Five-A-Side, extending the cool, soft groove of "How Long" throughout an entire LP. There's a bit of boogie and twang, apparent in the relaxed shuffle of "I'm a Man," the muted rocking of "You Can't Lose," and the lazy blues of "Ain't Gonna Stand for This No More." By and large, though, Time for Another is a very easy-rolling affair -- too easy, in fact, sounding too comfortable in its hazy surroundings, sometimes slipping into the sleepiness a third or fourth beer can lend.
If Time for Another was a tad bit subdued, Ace's 1977 follow-up remedies that problem by giving the pub rock a big, splashy production suited for the crossover audience "How Long" gave them three years prior. It was a case of too much too late -- Ace lost whatever chart momentum they had and the times were beginning to shift, with many of their pub rock peers gravitating toward punk. Ace took the opposite approach: they retooled themselves as a soft rock outfit with a distinctly Southern California bent. No Strings is music made with the charts in mind but it's livelier and more varied than Time for Another, capitalizing on Paul Carrack's soulful voice. Carrack is now front and center, so ably navigating the turns from bouncy pop to bright boogie to gossamer ballads that it's no wonder No Strings sounds in retrospect like a blueprint for his subsequent solo career. Nevertheless, No Strings is firmly a band album, gaining strength from Ace's group interplay, John Woodhead seamlessly filling the departed Phil Harris' shoes, but the production is so slick that it glosses over any potential rifts. And that smooth production is a big reason why No Strings is a strong record: it may not have been a hit, but with its soulful shine and easy melodies, it captures '70s major-label soft rock at a peak.
At the BBC is a bit of an antidote to the laziness of Time for Another and the studio shine of No Strings, offering a Peel Session from 1975, an In Concert from the same year, and an In Concert from 1976. Here, Ace's casual funkiness comes to the forefront, breathing life into the strong material from Time for Another and the staples from Five-A-Side, throwing a good version of Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" into the mix. They're still more relaxed than rocking, but this showcases their core appeal in a way neither of their last two LPs did, so it's an awful nice addition to this two-disc Cherry Red reissue. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine