The third track on the album, "I'd Love to Change the World", is also their biggest hit. It reached number 17 in the Billboard 200.
A departure in style from their previous albums, A Space in Time is less 'heavy' than previous albums and includes more acoustic guitar, perhaps influenced by the success of Led Zeppelin who were mixing acoustic songs with heavier numbers. It was released in August 1971 by Chrysalis Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in America. "Baby Won't You Let Me Rock 'n' Roll You"Ī Space in Time is the sixth studio album by the British blues rock band Ten Years After.Independent music sellers around the world. Read more reviews, listen to song samples,Īlibris connects shoppers with thousands of No comments so far, be the first to comment. Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981. I like it in a way, but it does lack a certain winning abandon, and I'm not crazy about the heavy's economic theories - fellow seems to believe that if you "tax the rich to feed the poor" you soon run out of the rich, with dire consequences. In which the rock heavy comes of age with his toughest, fullest, and most coherent album. No throwaway cuts here, but superb instrumental and vocal performances, especially "Here They Come," "I'd Love To Change The World" and "One Of These Days," all written by lead Alvin Lee. Ten Years After has kept its part of the bargain with one of its most consistently excellent LP's. And a poet he's not just listen to his attempt at a tactful metaphor in the horrendous "Over the Hill": "Like a cripple and his crutch/I have learned a bit too much/Seems that doubt (?) should never touch again." This song, incidentally, features a grating string quartet arrangement behind Alvin's singing and easily rates as the group's worst studio track.įans of Ten Years After will undoubtedly receive A Space in Time with wide open arms, but others may find the weak material and electronic leger de main too much to bear.Ĭolumbia has added to its prestige and profits by luring one of the best English rock & blues bands to its labels. When Lee sings "Got no streetcar named desire/And I'll never light her fire" in "Hard Monkeys" you know that he doesn't know what he's talking about. The best piece on this album is a Chuck Berry whitewash called "Let Me Rock 'n' Roll You." Ten Years After is quite adept at playing this quasi-Berry stuff, but I with they hadn't tacked on many banal sound effects to spruce the song up.Īlvin Lee's lyrics have always served as merely adequate vocal companions to his instrumental pyrotechnics, but the words on this album border on the senseless and inane. "Hard Monkeys" and "I'd Love to Change the World" contain intriguing guitar riffs, but nothing much else of any distinction.
"One of These Days" is a compelling opening track with good all-round instrumentation, even if it does drag on a bit. There are some worthwhile exceptions, however. Although bassist Leo Lyons and drummer Ric Lee provide the band with a foundation that is both workable and firm, Ten Years After does not use this rhythmic support to the best possible advantage. Chick Churchill's potential as an additional soloist, for example, is stupidly wasted by having him play only rhythm accompaniment on piano and organ behind Lee's numerous leads. Vocal melodies and guitar lines are virtually indistinguishable from one song to the next and few arrangements highlight anything besides Alvin Lee and his two, three or four guitar parts. The original material and arrangments are terribly lame. The record is an improvement over the disastrous Watt, but hardly a sufficient one. There are a couple of Alvin Lee guitar specials, several low key attempts at relevant social commentary, and a lot of underdeveloped unsuccessful music. A Space in Time, the group's first album for Columbia, re-hashes most of the material on the last four Ten Years After releases. Like a hamster running on a treadmill, Ten Years After is expending energy without moving.