Breakaway - GALLAGHER & LYLE***

Breakaway/Stay Young/I Wanna Stay With You/Heart On My Sleeve/Fifteen Summers/Sign Of The Times/If I Needed Someone/Storm In My Soul/Rockwriter/Northern Girl

Gallagher & Lyle were a Scottish soft rock duo who were founding members of the short lived group McGuinness Flint. This release was their most successful album and features the UK top ten hits I Wanna Stay With You and Heart On My Sleeve. (UK:6)

“Gallagher & Lyle, previously members of McGuinness Flint released a decent album here. Breakaway is a catchy song. Stay Young and Fifteen Summers are two very beautiful folk songs. Heart On My Sleeve is another hidden gem with a different accompaniment with accordion behind. The rest, mostly faster songs are somewhat lesser and sound more country-pop.”

“The too polished side of the 70s British country scene. Gallagher & Lyle, particularly on this album, were just too produced. You can't deny their importance in this genre of music though, as they were original members of McGuiness Flint. They just didn't do the genre any favours with this over produced pop piece.”

“A classic album that loaded all it goods on side one - leaving side two underplayed and thereby unbalancing the album as a whole.”

“Gallagher and Lyle have a very easy style, and this is an easy-going sort of album. Their music is slightly progressive 70s folk. Yet there are some surprises on here. If I Needed Someone and Storm In My Soul are fine tropical-flavoured pop, and I Wanna Stay With You is a disco song. But the reason I bought this album was for Heart On My Sleeve, a fine folk-pop song and this version adds an accordion to the mix. Fifteen Summers is a nice folk song.”

“With this album Gallagher & Lyle took their place in the pantheon of great pop singer-songwriters. These songs have much genuine sentiment and, like poetry, record universal experiences with such deftness, the listener can only instantly identify with them. The album weaves a course which is in some part folk, some part soul, creating an organic pop whole, with songs which are now upbeat, now wistful though not indulgently sad.” “Compared with the sound-alike hits played on the radio today, this music sounds brilliant, especially to someone who grew up in the 1970s.”