AUBREY SMALL – Aubrey Small
Aubrey Small came from the south coast of England, and made this album of commercial pop/rock in 1971. ‘The Loser’ is a good example of this style, although they do a nice take on laid-back guitar-based rock with ‘Country Road’, and a gentle ballad with just a touch of early Strawbs in ‘Gardenia’. ‘Trying To Find My Way’ is another jaunty pop/rock piece, while ‘For My Lady’ is a lovely ballad which ends up a being one of my favourites on the album. ‘It’s Morning’ is one of their more progressive efforts which works very well, while ‘Why’ goes in entirely the opposite direction with a country-tinged ballad. ‘Love On’ makes use of a brass band style horn section, although it is not anywhere near as bad as that sounds, but ‘Born To Be’ is a little too twee for its own good. ‘If I Were You’ has some great fuzz-guitar work, and ‘Smoker Will Blow’ is their most progressive effort, with liberal use of strings and a feel of trying to do something different. On the whole this is an extremely good example of Beatles-esque pop and rock, and the CD re-issue is well worth the investment if you like your rock on the melodious side.