A Song For Me - FAMILY***

Drowned In Wine/Some Poor Soul/Love Is A Sleeper/Stop For The Traffic-Through The Heart Of Me/Wheels/Songs For Sinking Lovers/Hey-Let It Rock/The Cat & The Rat/93's OK J/A Song For Me

A Song For Me was the third album release from the British progressive group Family, following some significant personnel changes. The pundits concluded that the new line up failed to reach the creative highs of the original. (UK:4)

"Family were a very strange band with a vocalist that took some getting used to. They played some cool prog rock and the guitar player is very good, but this may be their weakest release."

"In an effort to keep abreast of changing musical tastes, they have banished most traces of psych influences, moving more solidly in a progressive direction, but still with considerable diversity, including country flavour. Their overall appeal has begun a slow, but steady decline as well."

"Family's third album, A Song For Me takes on a slightly more aggressive sound, sometimes at the cost of the refinement and charm of their first two albums. Bassist and violinist Rick Grech, who left mid-1969 to join Blind Faith, has been replaced by John 'Willi' Weider, and saxophonist Jim King has been replaced by John 'Poli' Palmer on flute, vibes and keyboards. While Weider sounds fully integrated into this new version of Family, the presence of Palmer's flute sounds very much out of place and sometimes weak due to the fact that most of the songs were written with King's baritone sax parts in mind. Overall this is a good album, although nowhere near as strong or consistent as its two predecessors."

"This might well be the best of the early Family recordings. A combination of hard rock (bordering on metal) and wistful folk A Song For Me veers toward early progressive rock, but isn't as nakedly indulgent as some early prog-rock recordings. Perhaps their most experimental record, it seems as though the credo in making this disc was that anything went, and on tracks like Drowned In Wine, it works quite well."

"A Song For Me is generally heavier and rawer - more rock and blues and less psychedelia than the previous two albums, but still comes out as a good and natural extension of these. The songwriting is still fine and original, and the two new members, Poli Palmer and John Weider, are fine substitutes for Grech and King."