release date: Sep. 15, 1971
format: cd (2009)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: The Band
label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab - nationality: Canada
Track highlights: 1. "Life Is a Carnival" - 2. "When I Paint My Masterpiece" - 5. "4% Pantomime" - 7. "The Moon Struck One"
4th studio album by The Band recorded in a newly built studio in Bearsville, New York, originally released on Capitol Records, is the group's last album of original material in the following four years. The songs here are credited Robbie Robertson (eight alone), Rick Danko and Levon Helm (one song as co-writers with Robertson), one original by Bob Dylan (track #2) and one song by Van Morrison (track #5 together with Robertson). None of the songs are credited Richard Manuel or Garth Hudson and according to Helm, Manuel only appeared to play his parts before going his own ways.
Success hasn't made things easier for The Band. Internal conflicts about writing credits split the members and on top of that alcohol and drugs stood in the way of artistic outcome.
The album was met by luke-warm reviews and didn't sell as their two previous albums had done, although, it went as high as #15 and #21 on the Canadian and US album charts lists, respectively.
It's, however, no bad album at all. The band members themselves may have bad memories about the process, but they still play better than most despite the fact that a few of the tracks sound more like blue-prints or demo-takes of songs that were simply left as they came to be, e.g. "Last of the Blacksmiths", "Thinkin' Out Loud" and "Smoke Signal", but the remaining tracks only serve to document how well these guys played as a unit.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]
