Customer Reviews

Watt

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

WOW, talk about underrated- that pretty much sums up my feelings with the lost album by Ten Years After called Watts. What makes the music on the album so special to me? Well, I've heard Cricklewood Green, but the songwriting on that album isn't quite as high as it is here. Something about this particular set of songs is really really good to me.

Quality blues rock, but not necessarily the typical kind of blues rock most people immediately think of- Ten Years After liked to create blues rock in a way where the songs feel more like pop songs, but with a little bit of jamming thrown in for good measure. The jams are really really cool too. Not in ANY way boring. It was a winning formula for the band during the early 70's, but the results are REALLY satisfying to me on Watt.

"Gonna Run" reminds me of Canned Heat a little bit, and I LOVE that song. "She Lies in the Morning" is absolutely fascinating as far as highly enjoyable vocals is concerned. You'll probably fall in love with that melody the first time you hear it- it's extremely catchy.

This is truly an underrated album, and everyone must find a way to hear it.

I love this album and since it was the first album by them that I purchased, all the others just seemed to pale in comparison. There is just something about this album that hits all the right spots. It brings back fond memories of living in Spain in the early seventies. My favorite track is My Baby Left Me and my wife and I played a cover of that in our band for years. If you want to hear the band at their best, I highly recommend searching out this gem.

Definitely TYA's masterpiece. It's probably my most frequently played album at all, still after those 30 years. I still feel the smell of the parties of the seventies in Prague, dancing with a gal to Think About the Times. The album has an extremely unique atmosphere (yes, also tired in a way, maybe frustrated, but also full of tenderness and love in Alvin's voice and music as well, straight from the heart, subdued lights mandatory), which is only partially captured on other TYA albums (e.g. Cricklewood Green, A Space In Time). The totally happy tune, She Lies In the Morning, is really great (maybe adding some genuine British /Liverpool?/ inspiration to the mixture). Alvin's guitar solos are at his best: more "homogenous" with more self-control, with greater than ever melodic invention. Maybe some R&B purists will not like it, but Watt heralds the great change from the music of the sixties to the actual modern rock sound of the seventies (what a progress if you compare it to their somewhat plain R&B debut some 3 years before). Just listen to the brief shift into a fantastic jazzy improvisation, years before the climax of the jazz-rock era. The value of Watt is probably in its very specific sound that has brought together divergent inspirations, from hard-rock to jazz. Watt is the real achievement, the true result of previous learning how to play the blues. I only admit that the closing Sweet Little Sixteen has been performed much better by other bands (and TYA themselves could play R'N'R classics far better indeed), but it does not hamper the overall feeling from listening to the album. In short, if you want to know something on TYA, Watt has to be the choice.

Definitely TYA's masterpiece. It's probably my most frequently played album at all, still after those 35 years I have known it. I still feel the smell of the high-school parties of the early seventies in Prague. The album has an extremely unique atmosphere that only Alvin Lee's vocal and TYA music can produce. TYA's music is based on typical, simple but genuine, electric rock & blues riffs, which usually start off the pieces (e.g. tracks 1 & 4). Typically, the compositions may then evolve into more sophisticated music with gradation, especially in tempo (My Baby Left Me), two of the songs (tracks 4 & 6) evolve into nearly jazzy improvisations. Track 3 (Think About The Times) is an outstanding slow rock balad, with Alvin Lee's voice sounding somewhat frustrated, bitter, but (even for the male heterosexual as myself) quite sexy. Wonderful for dancing with a girl (subdued lights mandatory). The totally happy tune, She Lies In the Morning, is really great (maybe adding some genuine British /Liverpool?/ inspiration to TYA's music). The closing Sweet Little Sixteen has been performed better by other bands (and TYA themselves could play R'N'R classics much better indeed), but it does not hamper the overall feeling from listening to the album. Alvin's guitar solos on Watt are at his best: even more robust, with greater than ever melodic invention. It is rightful to notice the outstanding musicianship of the other members of the quartet (who are still able to perform fantastic gigs even after Alvin's farewell to TYA).

Watt is a slightly more mature record than its antecedent, Cricklewood Green, and maybe a bit more spontaneous and more varied than the following A Space in Time record. What makes Watt so outstanding is the synthesis of the R&B music with other influences. The brief shift to a jazz-rock improvisations might in fact herald the jazz-rock fusion in the coming years. I know that some R&B purists may prefer the more early TYA records. However, in my eyes, they were somewhat plain, at least in comparison to Watt, and lacked its maturity. To R&B fans this is a must have record, and I would recommend Watt even to the newcommers to TYA.

The atmosphere in this album's music is electric and captures a period of time that will never be duplicated. From "I'm Coming On" to "She Lies In The Morning" you're transported to the mythical realm of drug induced euphoria via the transport ship of Ten Years After. This band toured so much during this time frame - you can feel the weariness in this recording & much to this reviewers delight, it plays well on these songs and adds texture and atmosphere. That "cosmic stoned atmosphere" is so entralling that the listener is jolted back to earth with the discs closing track a live version of Chuck Berry's, "Sweet Little Sixteen", which seems so out of place on this album - and, it works! It flat out works to perfection.

This was the first TYA album I ever bought and the one I stillplay the most.Sure the version of Sweet Little Sixteen is not good...but the rest of this disc is among the most interesting and consistent work the band did. The feel of the album is less rock-blues based and more laid back than some other TYA discs...but still contains some great tunes.."She lies in the morning" and "my baby left me" for instance..I really like the overall feel of this one.Plus Alvin Lee plays some really great guitar on this disc....So maybe the guys were tired after all those US tours...they still made an album that I am enjoying listening to nearly Thirty years after it was recorded....and What else matters...???.

This is ten years after in its pick. Watt is much better and concise than the previous album from the same year "Cricklewood Green".
Alvin Lee is in great shape, less fuzzy in his guitar solos, and i must notice the lyrics.
Alvin was a little melhancolic at that time, there was always some poetry accent on the lyrics, like "She lies in the morning" and "Think about the times" simple and pretty, and also two basic rock and roll tracks are quite enough to speak for the whole album: "i'm coming on" e "I say Yeah".
Although "A space in time" and "Rnr music to the world" are good albuns, there's nothing compared to "Watt", in terms of ten Years After.

My favorite TYA album. A little out of character for the band, with more fluidity in Alvin's solos (She Lies in the Morning is mesmerizing, with excellent interplay between Lee's guitar and Churchill's piano), approaching a jazz feel. Oh sure, the macho lyrics are still there at times (I Say Yeah), but interspersed with enough fine guitar to make them almost convincing (I'm Coming On). A listen to Gonna Run provides a nice philosophical alternative, transcendence, to I'd Love to Change the World's nihilistic approach. And when the solo takes off, hold on! With Think About the Times, Lee actually seems grateful. Maybe thinking about this album put him in that frame of mind. So, thanks Alvin! I'm grateful too.

I would put this ahead of cricklewood green and a space in time. Certainly a good one for any TYA fan.

"Watt" was Ten Years After's fifth studio album and the second to be released in 1970. The group was at the height of popularity after the success of the previous album "Cricklewood Green" and the single "Love Like a Man".

"Watt" was a fine sequel to "CR", but it did not have the song that could repeat "Love Like a Man" 's success in the singles charts.

Guitarist Alvin Lee wrote, as the previous album, all the tracks (except of course live recording of "Sweet Little Sixteen). Lee's songwriting is relatively simple with strong base in the blues. There is also focus on the melodic side of the band, which is particularly reflected in the more subdued tracks like "Think About the Times," "My Baby Left Me" and the instrumental "The Band With No Name". In the more rocking end you'll enjoy "I'm Coming On," "I Say Yeah" and "Gonna Run".

All these numbers are fine examples of the group at its best. The long track "She Lies in the Morning" somehow comes out a little unfinished, and leaves you uncertain of which direction it wants to take you. The live recording seems a bit like filler and seems a little bit out of place.

Still a solid sequel to "Cricklewood Green"