Freedom At Point Zero – JEFFERSON STARSHIP****

Jane/Lightning Rose/Things To Come/Awakening/Girl With The Hungry Eyes/Just The Same/Rock Music/Fading Lady Light/Freedom At Point Zero

Prior to the release of Freedom At Point Zero Jefferson Starship lost two of their regular vocalists, Grace Slick and Marty Balin. Despite this setback the new album included a fine selection of songs, including the US top 20 hit Jane. (US:10 UK:22)

“It’s more than ten years on from the chemically soaked days of White Rabbit and more than the name has been modernised. The reincarnation of Jefferson Airplane as Jefferson Starship (minus Grace Slick) resulted in one of the better, if not the most original, AOR albums of the period.”

“After recruiting Mickey Thomas the band began to write and record music with a harder, heavy-metal sound. This was probably the album that sounded the most like they're just having fun making music. The big hit was the Jane that starts off with a short keyboard intro and then hammers you with guitars.”

“Freedom At Point Zero included the mega-hit Jane, along with the pounding and straightforward Rock Music, the beautiful ballad Fading Lady Light and the AOR gems Just The Same and the almost-proggish Awakening, which all showcase Mickey's exceptional, breathtaking vocals.”

“It's a hard rock masterpiece, but without the female vocals it's missing one ingredient to keep it from perfection. The band never wrote better songs than they did here, especially on the astounding Awakening and the stomp-thud hard rock colossus Jane.”

“It is one the few albums from its time where every song drives itself. This is just sonically rich in rock and roll spirit.”

“This is the Jefferson Starship album for me. All the tracks are great, with very good vocal harmonies, strong melodies, a lot of nice guitar solos, and the band is driven forward by the drums.”

“The songs mixed pop sensibility with Kantner's stoner sci-fi sensibilities and the result is an album that, no matter how much trashing Thomas got by the time Grace returned and bailed yet again, is as good as any of the best Jefferson Starship albums.”