Negative Positive
Title: Leslie's distinctive riffing is almost enough
Review: This is a great sounding album. Leslie is playing and singing as well as one could expect. The songs suit his style. And if it all comes off sounding more than a little like ZZ Top, that's okay. The problem is that when you put the name of Mountain on an album, people will expect a certain sound. Leslie does what he can with Nantucket Sleighride but the missing pieces just become all the more glaring when you redo a song like that one.The loss of Felix Pappalardi was huge. His singing and songwriting were just as important as Leslie's. But the missing piece that Leslie refuses to acknowledge is the importance to the Mountain sound of Steve Knight's keyboards. Mountain was more than a blues band, but without a great keyboard player they have no choice but to play the blues.
Is the review positive or negative? 