Free At Last

by

Free

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This album seems to be almost uniformly criticized in reviews but I would make a case that it holds its own fairly well against the rest of Free's catalogue. True, it is not all up to the consistent high standard of 'Free and Water' or 'Heartbreaker', but it nevertheless contains much good material and demonstrates clearly the evolving style of the band, away from the relatively simple arrangements of the early albums and towards the keyboard-dominated sound of 'Heartbreaker'. This album was the last by the original four members of Free, but though he is not credited I suspect that some of the keyboard work might have been by John 'Rabbit' Bundrick, who officially joined the band later, for their final album. Although there are a couple of tracks which some might regard as 'filler', the standard of composition and playing is high, with the shorter more concise songs near the start and the later songs being more lengthy, slow and thoughtful. There is a sense of introspection in some of these later songs which matches the mood of much of the 'Heartbreaker' album, and this evolution of Free's sound should not be dismissed just because it differs from, for example, stompers like 'All right now'. So although there were problems during the making of this album, it has always deserved a place in the collection of Free aficionados. Don't be put off by the criticisms of the critics, as I was for many years, and give it a hearing with an open mind. (There are also several bonus tracks, although these are mostly alternate mixes and not of major interest)

Being an avid Free fan you have to appreciate that it isn't really that easy for me to admit that "Free At Last" remains this excellent bands poorest effort by a long stretch.

"Free At Last" represents the final album of the 'classic' free line up - by the time the (funnily enough far superior) follow up "Heartbreaker" appeared Andy Fraser had left the group for good (a real shame) and Paul Kossoff's contributions were pretty minimal.

Anyway, with this album it's simply the culmination of poor songs and very poor production (even with this latest reissue the sound still grates on the ear) that really lets the side down. To be fair, the album does have the occasional great moments - notably "Solider Boy" and "Catch A Train", which are just your typical Free classics: loose limbed, bluesy and typically astonishing, however other than that the final results are definitely mixed, and the album as a whole is generally unsatisfying and the old magic had simply slipped away.

(I would add though that this album is worth investigating for the rather lovely cover of "Honkey Tonk Woman" that is added to this reissue, which sounds like the mighty Free of old).