Customer Reviews

Affinity

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're not familiar with Affinity,they were a five member English ensemble that had released this sole lp in 1970.The band seems to blend the elements of pop,folk,jazz and blues into their music.A lot of thought,heart and emotion went into the making of this record.Plus there's eight bonus tracks added,that honestly are about as GOOD as the original album.Best cuts are "Night Flight",the delightful "Mr.Joy","Coconut Grove",the eleven minute Bob Dylan cover "All Along The Watchtower","Eli's Coming",the soulful "If You Live","You Met Your Match" and their Beatles cover "I Am The Walrus".Lead vocalist Linda Hoyle appeals as sort of a creative cross between Carol King and Julie Driscoll.Includes a 12-page informative booklet that indicates that the band was planning a U.S. tour a bit after the lp's release,but unfortunately it never happened because Hoyle ended up leaving the group.A second lp was even in the works.Might make a decent gift for someone who enjoys today's adult oriented rock.

When I first heard this CD it blew me away, and it still does today. This one and only album from 1970 is a true masterpiece, and the music is just truly wonderful. Vocalist Linda Hoyle has one of the best voices I've ever heard, but unfortunately there's not much more available on her except a solo LP she had out in 1971 called "Pieces Of Me," which I strongly and highly recommend. I totally agree with the other reviewer and the comments made about this CD and the music. The Bonus tracks are just as good, if not better, than some of the songs from the original album! Definitely get the Angel Air CD with all the bonus tracks, you will not be disappointed. There's also another Affinity CD out with unreleased material that was intended to come out as an album, but never happened, and now it's available on CD, and it's from 1971-1972 with a different female vocalist that's quite good too, but maybe not as strong or powerful a voice as Linda Hoyle's, but still very good, and her name was Vivien McAuliffe. Sadly, Vivien is no longer with us, as she passed away in 1998 at just the age of 50. I also recommend that CD as well, the music is outstanding, and you won't be disappointed in Vivien's singing, she really did have a great voice. Glenn Signal Hill,CA USA

Affintiy were part of the first set of bands signed to the great Vertigo labal, along with Manford Mann Chapter Three, Juicy Lucy, Colluseum, and Black Sabbath. For the next five years, the label offered the best in progressive, stoner jazz, glam, and hard rock.

This first and only Affinity album is not a classic, but some of the numbers come close. The wonderful "I am You" and the absoltely swining "Three Sisters" showed this band could get into a jazzy groove, and rock. This was progressive rock, but stripped to a few chords so the musicans could really strech, and when Affinity did so, the magic happens.

Which is the problem with the rest of the album. There is some folkier material here, a Dylan cover, and some pretty formitable rock songs. But none have the improvosational spark of the two numbers mentioned, where Affinity were at their best.

This is a good album and prog fans and Vertigo collectors will not be let down, unless, like me, you heard "Three Sisters" on Time Machine: A Vertigo Retrospective and expect this type of magic swing for a whole album.

The album is great. Just know what you are buying.

Like another reviewer, I discovered this band through the Vertigo Time Machine collection. Unlike that reviewer, I found this entire album to be quite brilliant. One of the deffinitions for affinty in Webster's is as follows: "that force by which bodies of dissimilar nature unite in certain definite proportions to form a compound, different in nature from any of its constituents." That describes this band and their music pretty well, with elements of rock, jazz, folk, pop and even classical fused into one vital musical force.

I've had this for about a year now, and it's still in my top 20 rotation (and that's saying a lot!). Linda Hoyle's beautiful, powerful voice could easily carry lesser bands, but here the musicians hold their own quite well. I'd put keyboardist Lynton Naiff in the company of guys like Jean Jacques Kravitz from Frumpy (and if you like Frumpy, you should like this). This guy is brilliant and the rest of the band is close behind. Each song is unique, creating its own atmosphere, with an amazing dreamy quality throughout that can quite literally transport the listener across various soundscapes from the light of a Summer's day to the darkness of a Winter night and every where in between. I still catch new things with every listen. I would be hard pressed to pick favorites, but I will say "I Wonder If I Care As Much" is one of the most beautiful ballads I've heard. Hoyle's vocals tug at the emotions like few others, and the music merges with her voice like they're making love.

Affinity's lone album, along with Frumpy 2, are the best female fronted progressive rock albums I've heard, and rank in my top 10 prog albums of all time. Absolutely brilliant!