Never Too Late is best remembered today as drummer John Coghlan's final album with the band he'd served since the early '60s. The bulk of the set, however, was actually cut during the same sessions that produced the previous year's Just Supposin', although it's a struggle to say which of the two came out with the better songs. Neither is what one would describe as a classic Quo disc, but nor are they as disposable as some of the band's later releases. Indeed, any record that includes the bright bonhomie of "Something 'Bout You Baby I Like," the new album's biggest hit, is sure to have a few things to recommend it. And so it does. Indeed, "Take Me Away" digs deep into the band's past resources to recapture the sound of the full boogie flight, while both "Don't Stop Me Now," and the circuitous mantra of "Riverside" are both standouts. Excellent, too, is a cover of "Oh Carol," all the more so since it matches blow for blow the band's last dip into the Chuck Berry songbook, On the Level's "Bye Bye Johnny." Indeed, if Never Too Late has any major problem, it lies in the decision to shove the keyboards so high into the mix. Status Quo were, and are, one of Britain's finest guitar bands. Any attempt to prove otherwise is doomed to failure.
© Dave Thompson /TiVo