A Nod Is as Good as a Wink… to a Blind Horse

Cool 70s rock

Ehhh it's decent. Not too shabby.

Rod Steward has such a distinctive voice. This was fun!

Ordentlicher ehrlicher Rock aus den 70ern .

Good heavy blues rocker - before the 1001, I never really listened to anything Rod Stewart did before his 80s big hair days, and I can't say I was a fan but I'm really appreciating his early work, both here and with Jeff Beck. Every song is good, but they sound like a lot of other bands (even contemporaries - I try to be sensitive to appreciating who were the trendsetters). The lack of originality keeps them from getting a 5, but they get the 4 because I'd happily queue this one up again. Favorite tracks: Miss Judy's Farm, Love Lives Here, Stay With Me (one of those "hey I know this one!" moments), Debris (with Ronnie Lane singing lead with Stewart on backing vocals - nice chill song), Memphis Tennessee (fun Chuck Berry cover), That's All You Need (love the slide guitar - Ronnie Wood, soon to join the Rolling Stones). Yeah, that's 2/3 of the album. Good stuff.

This is kind of like a serving of mediocre French fries. If you’re craving fries it’ll do the job, but otherwise I don’t really need it. But instead of French Fries it’s bluesy rock. These are competently written and played rock songs. Rod Stewart’s vocals are fairly unique, and there’s cool guitar work, but there isn’t a ton keeping me interested here. It’s pretty whatever rock in this style. Palatable, but I’m not really coming back.

Blind A Wink Horse Good Nod As A As To Is A

3.5/5.0: Very Good

didnt expect rod stewart to rock this hard. its not polished, its not deep, but it rocks. realistically it’s between 3 and 4 but it hit just right so it gets an extra star.

I'm always hearing and enjoying Stay With Me. Chur Rodders

I like Rod Stewart when he's doing rock. And this is a pretty good version of that Rod Stewart.

I’m a sucker for blues rock. The more harmonica the better. These British boys were feeling it! It isn’t quite complex enough to rate five stars, some of the lyrics are clunky, but I did enjoy listening to this.

Ronnie Lane is a perfectly adequate singer, but the juxtaposition with the songs where Rod Stewart leads shows what a compelling frontman Rod is. Three stars for the Lane stuff, four for the Rod stuff. Going to give a four as there is more of the latter.

Look, this album is fine. I’ve not yet read a single review that can justify why it needs to be on this list though, and listening to the album doesn’t offer a convincing argument either. What are they doing that’s new and innovative? What musician is singling this out as their major influence? Help me.

Also- when they played live, what was Rod Stewart doing on the tracks where he doesn’t sing, just taking a smoke break? I truly don’t understand the multiple lead singer thing when one or more don’t play instruments.

Last thought - after a few beers, you could easily convince me “Stay With Me” was on The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack.

Going in, I was expecting this to be an entirely new one on me, as I didn't so much as recognise the band name or artwork. However, the opening track "Miss Judy's Farm" rang some bells in my brain due to being played at home over the years, and from there on in I had a fun time with this boogie rocker.

A welcome and endearing injection of fun and positivity, I think this suffers ever so slightly when it aims for that "moving ballad" approach on a track such as "Debris". However, the keyboard work from Ian McLagan is unrelentingly radiant throughout the album, and whilst this isn't mind-bending stuff, I feel that this album is an example of making modesty and looseness count. Arse shaking riffage, coupled with Rod Stewart's raspy, charismatic vocal offering, gives the album a real hazy 1970s whisky bar quality to it.

Not too bad! I had quite a nice time with this, and it was consistently good throughout with no real dips in quality. Not overlong also, which is appreciated.

It's quite a jam in general. Kind of upbeat rock n roll with some nice keys and jammy guitars. There's a few softer bits in there too which worked. It kind of flew by, and was a nice background listen.

3.5 rounded down.

The Good: Faces… always nice to look at!
The Bad: The faces aren’t top-model quality…
The Ugly: The look in my face while trying to figure out the album name…

Going to keep this one short.
We’ve got early ‘70s pop-rock. Some songs upbeat, others downbeat, all with a good beat.

Fun album to listen to, with 1 massive hit.

Though I will give this album a 4*, I don’t know why it is listed as an album you have to hear before you die...

Fine proggy stuffs

Just a great album. The rockers are great, but the ballads work well.

When I first heard this band I was amazed Rod Stewart could be this good, and it's one of the best $10 cds I bought

Rod Stewart genuinely has one of my all-time favourite voices, and yet I couldn’t really call him one of my favourite artists because he’s recorded some right old dross over the years. Give him a bit of bluesy 1970s rock though, and he's so good that I'm slightly disappointed when Ronnie Lane sings lead instead. No offence Ronnie, but Rod would have knocked You're So Rude out of the park.

Peak dirty rock and roll.... Rod Stewart being super fucking sleazy, Ronnie Wood found a fuzz pedal and went into overdrive with crunchy guitar licks everywhere. Ronnie Lane's driving bass filling the space alongside Ian McLagan organs and Kenney Jones drums. Everyone is absolutely on point here and it comes to a, frankly, orgasming crescendo at the end of side 1's "Stay With Me".

Should come with a pack of smokes for afterwards