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The penultimate album, then, on our journey through 1970, is this one:

Album title: It’ll All Work Out in Boomland
Artist: T2
Nationality: English
Label: Decca
Chronology: Debut
Grade: C
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value:
Tracklisting: In Circles/J.L.T/No More White Horses/Morning
Comments: A band who had the dubious honour of being “rediscovered” decades after they had split, leading to a new fanbase and an actual reunion, T2 played the prestigious Isle of Wight Festival but the ever-present “artistic differences” pulled the band apart and they only released this one album in the seventies. There are, as you can see, only four tracks on it, though one, the closer, hits the twenty-one minute mark, so there is that. Sounds a bit hard rock/psychedelic to me when “In Circles” begins, not quite what I’d call prog. Very guitar driven, though they do apparently use keys too (don’t hear them here though, not yet anyway) with decent vocals. Kind of gives me a feeling of very early Gary Moore or Randy California maybe. Keith Cross is the heart of the band here, playing both keyboards and guitar, and proving himself very talented on at least the latter so far.

Vocals are provided, in what might very well have been a first for the time, by the drummer, Peter Bunton, while Bernard Jinks on the bass completes the power trio. I have no idea what “J.L.T.” stands for but it’s a much more restrained song, soft breathy organ driving it this time with a nice humming bass line and some expressive piano, gives me a sense of early Pink Floyd. I’m glad to see the guitar dialled back on this one; it certainly took over the opener. It’s back though to lead in “No More White Horses” but the basic mood stays fairly low-key and laid back for this one too; a lot of acoustic guitar here, with quite a sense of The Eagles. That leaves us with the closer, and epic, twenty-one minutes and twenty-six seconds of “Morning”, which opens on soft acoustic guitar and crooning vocal, and I guess we can assume from its length that it’s going to change considerably over its run.

Well of course it does, as the guitar winds up in about the third minute into a semi-Rush pastiche (yes I know Rush were not around at this time, but you know what I mean) - I wonder if Alex listened to this album? Slowing down now in the sixth minute into a nice sort of ballady thing with a laconic guitar riff that evokes The Hollies' “The Air That I Breathe”, again before it was written. Could these guys have been such an influence on future rock acts, or is it just me finding correlation where there is only coincidence? Do you care? You surely do not. And meanwhile the song has moved into its tenth minute and gone into an extended instrumental passage with, unless I miss my guess and am very lucky, a drum solo. Oh dear. They’re bad enough in a live setting, but at least understandable there. Why do they need to be on a studio recording?

Nice motif running through the melody here in the fifteenth minute, and now it’s picking up again as we head into I guess the final section. Incidentally, despite its length this is all one song, no parts, no movements, no chapters. Pretty superb guitar solo to take us near the conclusion, then returning to the soft acoustic guitar to usher us out.

Favourite track(s): J.L.T./No More White Horses
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: A decent album, but I don’t see that it was so great that it was “rediscovered” in later decades and led to the band reforming. I mean, it’s all right for what it is, but I don’t feel it’s anything that special personally. A bit dated even for 1970.
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