Search - Nils Lofgren, Grin :: Grin 1+1

When 1+1 = 3!!

F. J. PRISCO | Seattle, WA USA | 12/23/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As with all the Grin albums, this one is off-and-on -- and equally, the ON parts completely justify the rest.



Here, the ratio runs about 50/50, which seems only appropriate considering the album's arrangement: 50% hard-rockin' songs, 50% ballads & easy-tempo songs. The strong tracks of the first half would have to be "Slippery Fingers" [one of their best tracks ever] and "Moon Tears", released as a single but without chart success. [That's the story of your life right there, eh, Nils?]



The strong tracks on the "Dreamy side" [or so my vinyl copy was labelled] are probably the middle three; "Hi Hello Home" especially defies age or category, and includes remarkably effective overdubs of banjo and tack piano. "Lost a Number" might seem a little dramatic for its subject ("Have you ever lost a number / it's like losing your world"), but we must remember that Nils was not yet old enough to vote when he wrote it.



What makes this different from the other three GRIN albums: in a word, orchestration -- the "Dreamy side" is largely Nils accompanied by an orchestra. While this is quite effective in places ("Just a Poem"), it's also rather noticeably out of place with Grin's other styles [see GRIN album and others] -- like dropping a Carpenters hit in the middle of a Rolling Stones album.



In retrospect, we can see that Nils was expanding his range; the first album featured mostly middle-of-the-road material, so here we are presented with the extremes of loud and soft. The downside of this is that anyone who loves one side may well hate the other; syrupy ballads and attitude-rock were never thought good companions until Journey managed to wed them into power-ballads.



Nils does sing all the songs but one ("Slippery Fingers" is roared with great glee by Bob Berberich), which is about as effective as having Keith sing all the Stones songs: sometimes it brings a plaintive quality, sometimes it could be better, and sometimes it really doesn't matter. Nils has a fairly gentle voice, so the ballads work out best.



His guitar playing, of course, is par excellence on the "Rockin' side": whether spewing lightning riffs ("End Unkind") or dirty suggestion ("Slippery Fingers"), we never doubt that he came to play. There is very little of his keyboard playing here.



Overall, an album with at least a couple standout tracks, several very good tracks, and a couple of lesser tracks. If the lesser tracks here rank among the bottom of the Grin repertoire, the standouts rank very high -- I'd place "Slippery Fingers" in the Top 5, and "Hi Hello Home" in the Top 20. As with the other three Grin albums: Definitely recommended."

Old fan..

Gary Baker | Manchester, CT | 07/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Very great cd ! This is Grin's 2nd cd (album)only. When Sony first picked up the rights to these they packaged Grin (the 1st album) together with their second album (1+1), and called it "Grin / 1 + 1", which is confusing since as you can see '1+1', has the name of the band (Grin) in front of it... Sounds like this item was listed for awhile as the double album (cd).. but it's not. In fact many internet sites point you here if you are looking for the double version... Still get it... the 1st cd is great too, but very hard to fine right now... but just wondeful stuff !"

Must Have

Jeffrey B. Henriques | Madison, WI USA | 03/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is a great album. I'll never understand why Grin never made it to the big time. The "Dreamy Side" is sweet and the "Rockin Side" sizzles. Great guitar work by Nils."