1+1 by Grin, featuring Nils Lofgren (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: 1+1

Group name: Grin

Artist name: Nils Lofgren

Year: 1972

Number of discs: one

Label: CBS Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Who owned it: it’s unclear which of my parents owned this one

Buy it on Amazon: $7.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard of Nils Lofgren, but don’t know anything about him. I am not familiar with “Grin,” which appears to have been his band.

What I expected

Maybe folk rock.

What it was actually like

Normal records have side 1 and side 2, or A side and B side, but 1+1 by Grin, featuring Nils Lofgren, had “Rockin’ Side” and “Dreamy Side.”

I opted for “Rockin’ Side” first, and it was definitely rock. There were even guitar parts that reminded me of Pete Townshend, like on Please Don’t Hide, and if I squinted, I could almost imagine it as a Who song – with the exception of the vocals. Nils Lofgren is no Roger Daltry.

White Lies was also a pretty good rock song, with sort of bluesy style vocals and a more choral style chorus.

Other parts of “Rockin’ Side” sounded almost proto-metal, like Slippery Fingers, that was very repetitively rhythmic, but with a great guitar solo. Unfortunately, the chorus was awful:

Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippin’ all over you

End Unkind seemed to start out metal, but then it got more country, which was pretty unexpected and interesting. I also liked its guitar solo, and its fast tempo, and complexity.

“Dreamy Side” was mostly not quite as dreamy as the name would have suggested.

I guess there was a little bit of dreaminess on Just a Poem because of its instrumentation, but I thought that the piano and violin really didn’t work together, and that it was the most boring song.

Soft Fun also had a slightly dreamy quality. It started with a baby singing, then progressed to harpsichord. Its piano sounded like an Elton John song, which is not a positive for me, and the violin and flute detracted a lot. It also ended with a sappy violin part that sounded like a 1950s Hollywood movie soundtrack.

Sometimes was more of a folk rock song, with drums. Lost a Number was not folky, and sounded more to me like rock from about ten years earlier, plus banjo and harmonica. Hi, Hello Home also a little banjo and some country sound, and was too fast to be dreamy.

Grade

4/5: would listen again