WISHBONE ASH: Argus (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Wishbone Ash is a band that has always had a small but faithful audience, probably because their rock is, at the time, uncategorizable: not muscular enough to be hard, too worked to be pop. Today, 36 years after its release, their third album remains the highlight of a career that Andy Powell, the only survivor of the original line-up, is prolonging in 2008.

In 1972, when Argus was released, the "small" Wishbone Ash audience hoped that their heroes would assert their talents with a major creation and they were not disappointed. The first notes of Time Was take the listener into a composition of almost 10 minutes that starts as a ballad and declines its chords on a faster tempo from the third minute. We find the sounds of the two guitars echoing each other, giving Wishbone Ash this unique sound and, like a glittering gem, resting in this silky music case, Martin Turner's voice and its rare clarity.

If Time Was reminds us of Wishbone Ash's first album, with Sometime World it is from Pilgrimage that the vocal harmonies seem to come out in its middle part. Blowin' Free allows us to discover Ted Turner's talent on the slide and does not leave any respite to the amazed music lover since his last notes fade only to leave the place to the mythical intro of The King Come. A good minute of guitaristic intertwining that goes crescendo on a deceptively simple rhythmic until the first poignant riff of this title that became mythical, probably thanks to the wha-wha complaints of Ted Turner.

We can't ignore the melancholic ballad that is Leaf and Stream, nor Warrior which, like the soldier on the cover, seems to be frozen in time in the first light of dawn. This dawn that brings us a melody that is slowly growing, a slow intro a bit like the one on The King Will Come, so that Throw Down The Sword can resound, which, to conclude this magical album, offers us one of the most beautiful guitar duets of all time, an epic moment that would make the most indomitable listener cry.

The remastered version of the album offers us 3 additional tracks recorded live in Memphis in 1972 (Jail Bait, The Pilgrim and Phoenix). I have mixed feelings about this initiative because, even if the tracks included are excellent, this extra music mitigates the magical effect of the finale of Throw Down The Sword. With or without Bonus, Argus remains a masterpiece of Wishbone Ash that should be in every discotheque worthy of such a name. - Official website

WISHBONE ASH

ARGUS

MCA

ROCK