SouthSideoftheSky Yesterday’s Ideals

Leaving behind the overtly progressive approach of Banquet, Lucifer’s Friend returned once more to a more straightforward Rock sound with Mind Exploding. The album most similar to this one is I’m Just A Rock ’N’ Roll Singer from a couple of years earlier and, like that album, Mind Exploding features shorter and more Rock-based songs. The band still utilizes assorted keyboards, brass and female backing vocals, but all this is more discrete here than on Banquet. The Heavy Metal sound of the first two albums is still absent, however. As I have emphasised in earlier reviews, Metal fans should begin with the band’s first two albums, as those are the only albums by Lucifer’s Friend that are genuinely Metal albums. Mind Exploding is about as Metal as Led Zeppelin or David Coverdale-era Deep Purple, but generally better than those in my opinion. Structurally similar to I’m Just A Rock ’N’ Roll Singer, about half of the material here is very strong and the rest is a little bit too far towards Rock ‘N’ Roll for my tastes. Moonshine Rider is a strong opener and semi-progressive, semi-ballads like Broken Toys and Yesterday’s Ideals are really great songs that wouldn’t be too out of place on the band’s better albums. Blind Boy and Natural Born Mover are straightforward Rock ‘N’ Roll songs with little or nothing to impress. Fugitive is a funky rocker with a nice synthesiser solo, but overall not too interesting. Free Hooker is the album’s longest track and possibly its most progressive and best song. Anyway, the best songs comes at the end with Free Hooker and Yesterday’s Ideals taking pride of place.

Mind Exploding is hardly Lucifer’s Friend’s best album, but neither is it their worst. It is a very good addition to any collection that already holds the essential Banquet, Where There Groupies Killed The Blued and the self-titled debut.

Recommended!