Them
Time Out! Time in for Them - Tower 1968 Comments:Like many others I went for many years and figured that "Them" after Van Morrison, was only a pale shade of the original raw R & B band.
At a certain point I ran into the album "Them Belfast Gypsies" which was recorded by early members of the group. It was actually an excellent album with a sound close to the original Them.
I was aware that some members of Van Morrison's Them went to USA and continued the group over there.
Bassist Alan Henderson was the man who took responsibility for continuing the successful group name. Together with other Them band-members Jim Armstrong (guitar / sitar), Ray Elliot (Keybords and Sax), Dave Harvey (drums) and the new Irish singer Kenny McDowell the group recorded two fine albums' Now and Them "and" Time Out! Time in for Them." The latter is the most ambitious of the two, an album that moves long distances, and only in flashes is reminiscent of the original raw blues expression.
The style is very influenced by psychedelia, with pretty extensive use sitar. Much of the album tracks were written by songwriter pair Tom Lane and Sharon Pulley, and their style is much in the spirit of the time. Singer McDowell sounds different than Morrison, but he has a good voice nice which suits the spirit of the music nicely. Among the Lane-Pulley numbers, the folk-inspired "Black Widow Spider" should be highlighted ". The bandmembers have also contributed to the songwriting and the song "Just a Conception" is perhaps the most exciting of the album. This CD-release contains some singles as bonus tracks. These shine to some extent over several of original 11 tracks.
The single "Square Room" - is psychdelia as a mix of Yardbirds and Doors - a great group composition.
"Dirty Old Man" is probably the closest you get to the old Them sound - a little in the same vein as Gloria.
Generally these single tracks are more simple in their production, but in no way less interesting.
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