Customer Reviews

More Than Ever

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

 

 

I'm a huge fan of BS&T, but not necessarily a huge fan of this album. Not to say that it's terrible. I actually bought it because of two mellow ballads...."You're The One" and "I Love You More Than Ever" -- two beautiful love songs than seemed to fall through the cracks from record buyers. (Larry Willis' funk smash, "Heavy Blue" is also worth a listen as well.) But it seemed that the group was trying to hard to commercialize their sound and the tracks just seemed bland an not as powerful as the BS&T sound of their earlier releases.

Angelic vocals? David Clayton-Thomas? No, I'm speaking of the
wonderful harmonizations of the female vocalists that run through this c.d.,
sometimes singing along with Thomas, sometimes
trading lines back and forth. I heard this release for the very
first time recently.(Where have I been?). I think it is as good
as their earlier releases, which came as a bit of a surprise
to me. It is much different, to be sure, but just as good. THEY
intersects a bit of the classical with a funky brass section,
top notch vocals from Thomas,(he is in top form through out), and
great keyboard work. I LOVE YOU MORE THAN EVER agin starts out
with a classical feel, but quickly changes into a country style
tune, highlighted by those angelic voices I spoke of earlier.
KATY BELL features great brass with a piece of dominant
saxophone work, and my, my, those voices. SWEET SADIE THE SAVIOR
is a soulful number, as is YOUR THE ONE, while HOLLYWOOD is "get
down" funk. HEAVY BLUES is just that, heavy blues. They finish
this offering off with SAVED BY THE GRACE OF YOUR LOVE, a hymn-
like tune heavy on the great vocals.(Thanks girls for that touch
of heaven). This is obviously not the classic B.S.&T. sound, but
it is an excellent piece of work nonetheless. I hope you enjoy
it as much as I do.
Thanks, and keep that smile on your face.
Tom

This is without a doubt, the worst B,S&T album. Actually, it's really a David Clayton Thomas solo album passed off as B,S&T (except for the instrumental "Heavy Blue").

Bob James was a terrible choice for this album as he blanded out everything that was great about the band. It's all awash in female backing vocals and strings. In face, the then current members of B,S&T don't really play on the album at all except for Leader/Drummer Bobby Columby and a few cameos by Dave Bergeon (trombone), Bill Tillman (tenor sax on the God-awful cover of "Katy Bell," a folk tune from the 1800s!), guitarist Mike Stern and keys ace Larry Willis on Larry's instrumental "Heavy Blue," which is again drowned in strings.

The funky opener "They" starts out promising, but quickly bogs down in a meandering middle section that goes nowhere quickly...with no real soloing or developement. It's an over-produced pointless exercise.

"Sweet Sadie" is trying to reinvent "Heigh-De-Ho" and makes you want to barf with all the overdone female backing vocals and strings.

The satirical "Hollywood" and the only ballad that works, DCT's "You're The One" are worth a look, but the rest is just terrible. Dont waste your money.

I am a huge BS&T fan, and was very disappointed in this CD. It was supposedly done in the early 1970's when the band was dolling out hit after hit, but only one or two of the songs are halfway decent. I sort of feel like I've been fed a bad line about this CD, and would not recommend anyone else wasting their hard earned dollars on it.

This is where Blood Sweat and Tears threw in the towell on jazz and became a vagas act.

Bob James produced this, and More Than Ever marks the return of David Clayton Thomas in 1976. Sounds interesting, but it is not. This is manly MOR rock with horns and some completely loungy ballads, well played, but strictly for the Dinha Shore show.

David Clayton Thomas worked well for the band in 1969 because the material was soul influanced, and he aced the bands 60s soul sound. By 1976, AM slick pop was the commodity of the hour, and no one epitomized the smaltz of the genre more than BS&T does here.

Great musicans playing bad music. Nothing is worse.

This is a well-done and overdue effort. There are only a few BS&T recordings that have not made the transfer to CD. (I'm still waiting for New City.) This is a little more R&B than many of the band's efforts, but enjoyable nonetheless. I burned my old LP onto CD a few years ago, but this is better. This album didn't do well commercially when it was released, but has stood up well over time. I believe it was their last work for CBS/Columbia.