Next.
Nostalgically, I've bought a couple of vinyls and I can't help but think one of those albums just deserves to be mentioned. And not just mentioned, but praised. It may be a musical prehistory, but it's a prehistory that continues to inspire years later. A lot of great music was composed, recorded and released in the seventies. But even very good projects could be almost or completely forgotten. In 1973, the five musicians released an album with the four-letter title Next. The seven tracks, totalling just over thirty-five minutes, are packed with energy and an audible desire to make a big beat. It broke into the charts and gained popularity in Britain, but in the US repeated efforts have succeeded only in Cleveland and the surrounding area. The band never took their projects further into the American market. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (SAHB) was formed by Alexander James Harvey (born 1935 in Glasgow, Scotland) in 1972, and along with Zal Cleminson, cousins Hugh and Ted McKenna, and Chris Glenn, the band inherited a glam rock sound and vaudeville image. In the band's discography, the second album Next documents the full range of SAHB's wide genre span. From the foot-stomping titles The Faith Healer and The Last of the Teenage Idols, to the exuberant cover of Giddy Up a Ding Dong (Bell, Latanzi, 1953), to the album's highlight in the form of Jacques Brel's tango Au Suivant in an impressive translation of Next. SAHB gives the theme of a young soldier's loss of virginity in a mobile brothel during World War II a touch of tragicomedy while precisely maintaining a dramatically dynamic performance. The record, which by the way I recommend you play from vinyl, stands out for its good musicianship, arrangements featuring an imaginative brass section, decent sound and Alex's inimitable vocals incorporating wailing, mewling, wailing along with tension, appeal and pose. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band made a total of seven studio albums of variable quality, and the whole story of this project effectively ended with the frontman's death from heart failure at just under forty-seven. But listening to Next forty-five years on is well worth it, and I'm sure those of a more receptive disposition will get chills when listening to the title track in good headphones.
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