ARTIST: Triumph
TITLE: Rock & Roll Machine
YEAR RELEASED: 1977
CHART ACTION: #182
SINGLES: Rocky Mountain Way
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Maybe Canadians know the title track
LINEUP: Rik Emmett, Gil Moore, Michael Levine
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Canadian power trio veers more to rock than progressive music, but still sounds generic and blah, despite their rockin’ intentions.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: As hard as Triumph tried on their second album, by cutting down the progressive noodling and moving towards straight rock noodling, they still didn’t succeed. The rock is generic, and the lyrics are puerile for the most part, and when Moore sings, he strains more than sings.
The title track to this album seems to be an excuse for Emmett to have a long guitar solo that kind of sounds like Eddie Van Halen, except more polite and less virtuostic. Their cover of “Rocky Mountain Way” seems to exclude all of the good parts from the song. They do have a couple of multi-part songs, and they’re very much sub-Rush.
Not much passes muster, except “Bringing It On Home.” I’m keeping that one.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: This album, when released in the US and around the world, was actually a combo of their first two Canadian records. They had a second cover for the international market. Now, you stream their first two separately.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: C: One decent cut does not an album make.