Afghanistan

The regrouped Q 65 shows far less immersion in (and devotion to) traditional blues, and they generally play a lot louder. On about half of this album, it's as though they'd stopped listening to Howlin' Wolf and, instead, started absorbing Led Zeppelin, while other songs show off some psychedelic flourishes. The music is still blues-based at its roots -- and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" is fine as a low-key exception to the rest of the original LP -- but some songs are ornamented with fine, elegant flute and lyrical acoustic and electric guitar breaks ("Baby Don't Worry," "Please Come Back to Me"), and a spaced-out mindset. Unfortunately, much of the material is rather non-descript rock & roll -- some of it is energetic but little is innovative or fresh, and all of it is predictable, when it's interesting enough to make one care to anticipate anything about it; the rest just lays there. The 1992 CD compiles the contents of the original album with material off of its follow-up, We're Gonna Make It, along with a previously unissued, live, 14-minute rock & roll medley. The previously available live version of "On the Highway" is among the best cuts here, and accounts for half the value of this disc. ~ Bruce Eder