Free At Last - FREE***

Catch A Train/Soldier Boy/Magic Ship/Sail On/Travellin' Man/Little Bit Of Love/Guardian Of The Universe/Child/Goodbye

After a brief split blues rockers Free reunited to produce the disappointing Free At Last. The blander sound reflects the kind of material they would later deliver when re-branded as Bad Company. Includes the UK top twenty hit Little Bit Of Love. (US:69 UK: 9)

“Free's weakest studio effort, but that doesn't mean it's bad, as they never released a sub standard album. They were far too talented a group of musicians for that. The songs here aren't quite as good as on previous efforts, but still they're plenty good enough.”

“Apart from nicely atmospheric and highly melancholy Guardian Of The Universe very little of this sticks. A nice-sounding record but it's clearly Free-by-numbers and not very inspiring.”

“With Free At Last, it feels to me as though the plans for the upcoming transformation into Bad Company were already underway and it affected the quality of this release terribly. It remains the Free studio album with the least to offer.”

“At times it resembles the majestic cry of a dying beast. It is drenched in emotion, melancholy and darkness far more than any other Free album yet it also shows shafts of light and a hint at what could have been.”

“Musically these tracks were instantly recognizable as a Free product. The bad news was that with the exception of Catch A Train and Little Bit Of Love the reunited band didn't sound all that enthused. Mid-tempo rockers like Soldier Boy and Magic Ship sounded like they were going through the motions, while stockpiling their top shelf material for future endeavours.”

“Free At Last isn't that good. By this point in their career and following a brief split Free had totally established their sound and saw no reason to fix what wasn't broken. As a result this is the most obvious Free album, the one which sounds like it could have been recorded by a competent sound-alike band. It's not terrible, it just lacks the punch of their other albums. Ultimately though Free At Last fails to excite like the very best Free albums do.”