AUNT MARY – Aunt Mary
Aunt Mary are a Norwegian hard rock group who issued a number of albums through the 70’s. I have had ‘Janus’ and ‘Loaded’ for many years, but did not actually realize that there was a third album by the band. This is their debut, which came out in 1971, and was actually released in Denmark as that was where the band lived at the time. You can tell straight away that they had yet to find their forte, as although ‘Whispering Farewell’ is a nice hard rocker, ‘Did You Notice?’ is Jethro Tull’s ‘Bouree’ with lyrics, and ‘I Do And I Did’ is a pretty straight blues. ‘47 Steps’ is a good jazzy pop song - not really what I expected after hearing their other two albums, but enlivened no end by some great organ towards the close. ‘Rome Wasn’t Built In One Day’ passes by making little impact, but ‘Come In’ is better, being a horn-enhanced ballad with a good vocal performance. ‘The Ball’ brings back the hard rock, softened slightly by the addition of flute, but still pretty good. ‘All My Sympathy For Lily’ is another bluesy rocker, and the record closes with ‘Yes, By Now I’ve Reached The End’, owing just a little to late 60’s Traffic in the vocal department. Overall it is not a bad album – a bit derivative in places, but having the lyrics in English will be a plus for the casual listener. Just a word or warning, though, that if you have already heard either ‘Janus’ or ‘Loaded’ then I think you will be a little disappointed in this early effort.