Humble Pie
Joint Effort

Lets take another bite of the Humble Pie, Joint Effort is an album that was first recorded in 1974-75 and turned down by the record label. It has been unreleased since then, until now when it sees the light of day. And it is usually worth questioning the validity of such releases, as there might be good reasons for labels to turn down albums and perhaps even more so back then. And do we really need an actual album from that time when we are being plagued by retrorockers left, right and centre? I am not so sure, but of course I have listened to this album very carefully and formed an opinion about it.

Blues-rock or hardrock is probably the best way in terms of genre to describe this album. It sounds like most Humble Pie I have heard before; mind you I am not an expert so I might be slightly off here. It is an album of original tracks and some covers – Beatles, Brown and Betty Wright are being covered on the album – perhaps that lack of originality was the reason for refusing it in the first place. Not the most original album I have heard, it kind of feels like a standard seventies rock album and not very exciting from that perspective. The songs are of the usual variety although the use of covers adds a little flair in that regard. The good thing about the stuff from back then was that they kept playing time sensible and this album is no exception to that.

Can’t say that I am impressed with what I hear, and I can’t say that I see the point of it either. Perhaps it would have been much wiser to allow this album to have remained unreleased, there was no point digging it up. It is an album that doesn’t really have any ear-catching songs; it kind of quietly passes by without me really noticing what is on. And a wiser choice would probably be to check out any of their actual releases instead of this one. The only ones that I can imagine would want to have this album is the collectors and die-hard fans of Humble Pie.

An album that can safely be disregarded, a joint effort that feels like a failed effort. The label was wise to disregard and turn down this album, as I can’t really se that it has a point or any real validity. It should have remained buried with the rest of the unnecessary albums that were created back then and are still created today – there is enough retro rock released anyway. And you could actually say that this album wasn’t good back in the day it was created and it hasn’t aged well, so the conclusion is that the album could be safely overlooked and forgotten.

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