The Spencer Davis Group - Gluggo (Reissue) (1973/1997)

The Spencer Davis Group re-formed in 1973 after a couple of years off during which Spencer Davis cut some solo albums and Eddie Hardin recorded the masterful solo record Home Is Where You Find It (with the help of fellow SDGers Pete York and Ray Fenwick). Gluggo is the result of their reunion and while it isn't terrible by any means, it is a letdown to anyone who was looking for classic Spencer Davis sounds or a reprise of Hardin's solo album. Too many of the songs are tune-free, the vocals sound like first takes, the playing isn't particularly interesting, and the whole record is weighed down by an attempt on the band's part to be heavy. The beats don't bounce, there is no groove, and the riffs are leaden. The instrumentals "Today Gluggo, Tomorrow the World" and "The Edge" are the main offenders here, but ugly blooze-rockers like "The Screw" and generic boogie rockers like "Feeling Rude" don't help much either. There are a couple flashes of goodness here and there, like the harmony-drenched "Don't You Let It Bring You Down" (the one track that could have made the cut on Hardin's album) and the driving "Living in a Backstreet," which features some organ that it very reminiscent of the group's early sound. As far as comebacks go, Gluggo is a nonstarter musically. It didn't do much commercially either, and the band dissolved after recording one more album. [In 1997 Repertoire (and in 2004 Cherry Red) reissued the album with the addition of six bonus tracks. They included "Touching Cloth" (the B-side of "Mr. Operator"), rough mixes of "Mr. Operator" and "Touching Cloth," and three songs that were on the American release of the album. Two of the songs are inferior to the rest of Gluggo (the silly country tune "Legal Eagle Shuffle" and a ragged take on "Trouble in Mind"), but the lovely piano ballad "Alone" is better than anything on the album.]