Detailed Reviews [It - 2000 - "Rock & Roll"]

Preamble. Most likely, "Rock & Roll" is the debut album of It. I haven't heard of this US band up till now.

The Album. Overall, "Rock & Roll" is an album of a unified stylistic concept representing Classic Hard Rock of a British school, the roots of which are in the early 1970s. There are no instrumentals on this album, and precisely half of the songs that are presented here (and there are ten of them on "Rock & Roll") were performed by different lineups. All five of the first songs on "Rock & Roll" performed by the trio of Wilson, Thompson, and Baker, are excellent and by all means. Each of them features at least a couple of quite complex, diverse, and interesting instrumental parts and outstanding vocals. Another excellent song on the album is Music (10). This touching, truly classic Hard Rock ballad of a dramatic character and all five of the first songs on the album: Do It, Money's On the Table, Pen In Hand, You Can Do It, and One Is One, feature the amazing vocals of Tim Thompson. The said ballad and Got To See It (6) are the only songs here that the parts of keyboards (the passages of synthesizer, to be precise) are present on, though Magic features also the solos of flute. Even though Got To See It, sung by the guest vocalist Tony Dierkoff, is softer than any of the other songs on the album (not counting the aforementioned ballad, of course), it sounds very good overall. Whereas any of the remaining three tracks: Got the Blues, Fly To High, and Rocking (7, 8, 9) are too simple to be regarded as the Classic Hard Rock songs. Also, the vocals of the main mastermind behind the band and the only permanent member of the line-up on this album, Joe Wilson, aren't that impressive.

Summary. If all ten of the tracks on "Rock & Roll" had been as strong as the first five of them and Magic I would've rated it as a good album, though, of course, only within the framework of Hard Rock. Though as a whole, the contents of It's debut album, as well as the line-up of It (or on it, if you will) look very motley, to say the least.

VM: March 7, 2003