Iron Butterfly - Ball
Released in 1969
Track Listing
In The Time Of Our Lives
Soul Experience
Lonely Boy
Real Fright
In The Crowds
It Must Be Love
Her Favorite Style
Filled With Fear
Belda-Beast
In terms of originality, Iron Butterfly never made it too far. In terms of sound, though, they were unique for their time. When they were recording
Ball, it seems as if they decided to strip it down some and took out most of what made
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida enjoyable. All of the pop-ish songs on
Ball seem almost generic and Doug Ingle's vocals are flat and uninspired. The drums are no longer pounding and the guitar feedback is almost eniterly gone. It may seem like I'm comparing
Ball to
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and in a way I am, but even that piece of crap
Heavy had everything
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida did, it just wasn't put together well. But I digress~.
Just like
Heavy,
Ball isn't entirely bad and has some really good bits. The album opener "
In The Time Of Our Lives" is a good example of this. Out of all the songs on
Ball, "In The Time Of Our Lives" is probably the most inspired. It has most of the elements that defined Iron Butterfly's weird acid/stoner sound and it may even fool you into thinking that this album might actually be good. Another highlight is "
Filled With Fear" and is probably the best song on
Ball. It reminds me of something, but I'm not really sure what.
For the rest of
Ball though, they're trying to be "tender"? "Melodious"? Either way, you can tell that they're trying which didn't work for
Heavy but it doesn't seem to make a difference on
Ball. All in all, you might want to check out this album. It's nothing too special, but it can be rewarding if you're in the right mood.
Other interesting cuts include: "
Real Fright" and "
In The Crowds".
6/10