THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: A NEW TIME, A NEW DAY (1968)
1) I Can't Turn You Loose; 2)
Guess Who; 3) Do Your Thing; 4) Where Have All The Flowers Gone; 5) Love Is All
I Have; 6) You Got The Power To Turn Me On; 7) I Wish It Would Rain; 8) Rock Me
Mama; 9) No, No, No, Don't Say Goodbye; 10) Satisfy You; 11) A New Time, A New
Day.
Honestly, I do not like this at all. A band
with a magnificent musical formula can allow itself to milk said formula until
the end of time; but if you are merely competent and mildly amusing, the act of
stubbornly sticking to your guns ends up becoming irritating. The Chambers
Brothers (or, perhaps, Columbia Records as the self-imposed market brain behind
The Chambers Brothers) were so happy to finally be noticed through the success
of ʽTime Has Come Todayʼ that they wasted little time producing another album
that not only sported a very similar title (because, you know, if The Chambers
Brothers sing about TIME, that's a
frickin' quality mark!), but had the exact same structure — a random mix of
blues, R&B, and folk covers and originals, capped off by one lengthy psycho-R&B
freakout.
ʽTime Has Come Todayʼ was actually fun —
catchy, with a good beat, a freaky guitar solo, and, most importantly,
freshness of approach, as you could hear the guys actually having fun in the
studio. In contrast, its follow-up, ʽA New Time, A New Dayʼ, is not nearly as
memorable, and the freakout section offers not a single new idea: they simply
pick a slightly different groove and tempo, then proceed to offer the same mix
of psychedelic guitars, keyboards, and vocal whooping. In relation to ʽTime Has
Come Todayʼ, it is precisely what, say, ʽBye Bye Johnnyʼ is to ʽJohnny B.
Goodeʼ: everybody remembers the original, but who really gives a damn about the
sequel? (Other than the Stones occasionally covering it in their 1970s shows,
probably because they were too bored playing the first part).
As for the rest, it all gives the impression of
having been assembled and recorded in great haste: considering that ʽTime Has
Come Todayʼ only began climbing up the American charts in the fall of 1968,
while the official date of release for this album is given as October 8, this
seems to have been exactly the case. So, for instance, most of the «originals»
here are really just semi-improvised funky grooves — on ʽDo Your Thingʼ, they
go for a modern James Brown vibe, predictably nowhere near as impressive as the
real «thing»; ʽNo, No, No, Don't Say
Good-Byʼ (sic!) shifts the rhythmics to a slightly more «Latinized» mode, but
the only interesting thing about the song is a wildly ecstatic piano part (no
idea who is actually behind the keyboards, but he sure cared more about the
performance than all the other members of the band put together).
Of the covers, the only element of surprise is
encountered on their rather unorthodox arrangement of ʽWhere Have All The
Flowers Goneʼ, redone here as a passionate gospel-soul number with very little
other than the lyrics to connect it with the original; not sure if I like it,
but at least they did try — which is more than I could say about the inferior
rendition of Redding's ʽI Can't Turn You Looseʼ, or the boring six-minute long
bluesfest of ʽRock Me Mamaʼ. And it was generous of their producer Tim O'Brien
to write a slow soul ballad for them (ʽSatisfy Youʼ), but, unfortunately,
while the brothers' collective harmonies have always been their strongest side,
in terms of solo delivery none of them could ever compete with the tones,
timbres, and delicate phrasing of the genre's true masters. In short, whatever
future hopes for artistic growth and commercial success they might have raised
with ʽTime Has Come Todayʼ, all of this was effectively buried with this
mediocre (not too horrendous, but flashbang-obviously mediocre) rushjob —
which, in the context of their overall career, only merits a disappointing thumbs down.
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