Solid Silver is the last
Quicksilver album to fit into the group's original time line -- although this was really a reunion rather than an actual continuation of their previous work, reestablishing however briefly the classic core lineup of
Dino Valente,
John Cipollina,
David Freiberg,
Greg Elmore, and
Gary Duncan. And the results are impressive, even at times glorious and soaring, and not just on
Valente's compositions, which fill six of the ten slots on the album. His work is as good as ever, and the haunting "Cowboy on the Run" was practically worth the price of the album. But it's
Gary Duncan's "Gypsy Lights" that opens the album on a powerful yet lyrical (and memorable) note, and in more of a pop vein than listeners are accustomed to from this band; David Frieberg's "I Heard You Singing" isn't bad, either, and is a lot closer to the band's classic sound. Most of the album represents a latter-day folk-rock (or blues-rock) cum acid sound, not too far removed from the virtuoso levels achieved earlier in the decade by
the Jefferson Airplane, with the members fairly playing their hearts out here like it's as urgent as any of their classic late-'60s recordings. But perhaps that also explains the album's commercial failure -- released in 1975, it sounds as though it's caught in a time warp about six or seven years in the past, which for some listeners was exactly where the band and its sound belonged. ~ Bruce Eder