Left completely without
Gene Clark (their best songwriter and singer) after their second album,
Roger McGuinn and
Chris Hillman became McGuinn-Hillman for this, their third album. They also turned to producer
Jerry Wexler, a legend in the field of R&B from the 1950s, who proceeded to turn them into a much more soulful and harder-edged unit than their previous work would have led one to think possible. Indeed, this album is, roughly speaking, the
Roger McGuinn-
Chris Hillman equivalent of
Poco's
From the Inside, the country-rock group's intersection with
Steve Cropper -- and taken on those terms, it's not bad; they even work in some nice harmonies on "Entertainment," though the defining moments on this record come on the harder numbers of such as "Soul Shoes." The latter material might even have worked out, if anyone buying McGuinn-Hillman tickets would have resonated to it -- but they didn't, any more than fans of white soul were ready to embrace
Roger McGuinn and
Chris Hillman, ex-folkies and, in
McGuinn's case, an Eastern religionist. They weren't, and the album died a death, which is a pity -- no, it's not a lost masterpiece, but there's nothing horrendous here, and there are a few fine songs, such as
Hillman's "Angel,"
McGuinn's "King for a Night," and their rendition of
Graham Parker's "Between You and Me," all coming surprisingly close to the
Byrds' sound that everyone professed to miss on the group's earlier work. ~ Bruce Eder