Search - Raspberries :: Fresh (Mlps)

It Still Lives Up To Its Title

BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 03/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When the Raspberries called it a career, and their first best-of album arrived (1976's "Raspberries Best Featuring Eric Carmen," the billing only too obviously aiming at the audience then digging deep into Carmen's first solo album and first two solo hits), one of the inside liner notes concluded thus, again leaning upon the angle of the Beatles' influence on them, "We'll never know if they had an album like 'Sgt. Pepper' in their future, but they sure have a lot of albums as enjoyable as 'Rubber Soul' in their past."



That isn't exactly off the mark, considering that about half their first album and just about all of albums two through four are exactly as enjoyable as "Rubber Soul," even if the Raspberries weren't as overtly ambitious as the Beatles showed themselves on that set. With "Fresh," the Ohio quartet saw their own debut and raised it about tenfold, eliminating the critical excesses that marred the debut and getting down to just about the most exquisite example they could offer of how to create rocking pop music with a little extra oomph, a lot of melodic and harmonic care, and an unapologetic empathy toward the line between teen innocence and teen angst without either crossing it or crushing it beneath their platform suit shoes.



The kickoff track (and their second Top 20 hit), "I Wanna Be With You," shows they haven't lost their ability to hang hook after hook, harmony after harmony--and shamelessly chiming guitars--on a hard rock bed, and they continue the guitar chimes cleverly enough on the next track, "Goin' Nowhere Tonight." Then comes "Let's Pretend," about which it is fair to say that if Paul McCartney once wanted to write a song as good as "Wouldn't It Be Nice," Eric Carmen did. (Ironically, Carmen has since admitted "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was his inspiration for this jewel.) It deserved to be a bigger hit single than it was, but in 1973 the smugger-than-thou world of glitter, glam, prog pretensions, and singer-songwriter solipsism still wasn't ready to admit that what we used to call pure rocking pop still had validity. (They probably weren't really ready to admit that "Let's Pretend" was bridged by a little night sex, either.) And nothing---not the first three tracks of "Fresh," not subsequent treats as the Raspberries beating the Beach Boys at their own game ("Drivin' Around") or Carmen and bassist Dave Smalley dreaming up something that damn near beat "Let's Pretend" at its own game (the breathless heartbreak middle-rocker, "Nobody Knows," George Harrison-esque guitar break and all), and not Wally Bryson's deceptively lightweight but charming "Might As Well"---could sway them.



And to think it was only going to get better from there. And, that more than half the world of the 1970s couldn't pull its own head out from up its own musical rump long enough to pay the attention this music and this band deserved..."

Remastered sound is superb!!!!!!!

Ride the country 77 | Montgomery, AL USA | 03/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Just wanted to let the Raspberries fans out there know that the sound on these new imports is fantastic! I have the first two and i'm anxiously awaiting the final two to be released. They come in beautiful digipaks. I gave these first 2 albums 4 stars, saving the 5 stars for the awesome 'Side 3' and 'Starting Over'."

May be the ultimate release from the godfathers of power pop

cindyinthewind | Cleveland, OH USA | 02/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When you ask Raspberries fans which album is their favorite, they tend to cite this one over and over again. Maybe it's the perfect distillation of all their Sixties-inflluenced British Invasion pop magic. Maybe it's the amazing sequence of musical gems that is side two...from "Nobody Knows" right down to "Drivin' Around." But if you listened only to side two you'd miss their classic "I Wanna Be With You"...the song with which they're opening their reunion concerts. If that one doesn't rock you, nothing will! In any case, if I had to recommend one Raspberries album over all the others it would probably be this one. But really, if you like this kind of music you should get them all...and look for their reunion tour...it's coming sometime this year."