Ten Years After ‎– Positive Vibrations

By this time, Ten Years After should have been aware that the light at the end of the tunnel was a train, a train headed to oblivion, set on taking the band with it. Even I by this time was making my own cassettes, drawing only the most beloved material for my listening pleasure, gone were the days of sitting down with an album and suffering though half of it without a smile on my face.

Positive Vibrations was a poor representation of the band at this point, though truth be told, they’d been moving toward this collision for a very long time, as it was more than evident that Alvin Lee was enjoying his solo career, ready to set out on his own full-time without the weight or the framework of Ten Years After on his shoulders. I can not imagine how it must feel for a band to simply go through the motions, unsatisfying for sure, as if every hour Lee spent on stage with the band was taking a small piece of his soul.

Of course others will praise the record, saying that it’s entirely underrated, that Positive Vibrations comes off as if the band were finally on a new path, that the performances were tight; yet I hear an album where Lee has kept his best material for himself, unwilling to share, unwilling to be a full fledged member of the band. This all leaves me to say that no matter how much you wish the piece of painted glass in your hand to be a gem, it never will be. Of course this didn’t stop a remastering of the album with double the songs from floating down through the ether, with all of the bonus material being heard before, yet it does allow one to forget how tragic this original generic outing was.

In short, there are no positive vibrations found here, it’s just Alvin Lee backed by his mates running through the same guitar sequences for the millionth time, all while sounding very tired and sad, unable to embrace their roots, with Lee saying, “When we changed to a harder rock sound, we left a bit of creativity behind, not to mention that we were overworked and underpaid.”

*** The Fun Facts: As to the album’s title, positive vibrations are high-frequency thinking patterns, attitudes, emotions, whereas negative vibrations are low-frequency thinking patterns, attitudes and emotions, yet with all of the drug use going on within the band, and Alvin in particular, methinks the album title was more something they wished to aspire to, rather than a reality.

Review by Jenell Kesler

There was also an early withdrawn pressing of this double cd with 9 tracks on disc two. Two songs (One of These Days and Help Me) were removed. If anyone has that version, please get in touch.

Very nearly an Alvin Lee solo project and the album that ended Ten Years After, Positive Vibrations abandons their earlier psychedelic sound for a "modern" boogie rock sound akin to that of their 1974 opening act, a little-known trio from Texas called ZZ Top. If you listen to this album you'll hear that it's no accident they selected ZZ Top to warm up the crowds.

I put this album on the other day (vinyl of course) and forgot how great it was! Alvin Lee just plays effortlessly and beautifully. "You're Driving Me Crazy" is good example of this, rock and roll from the seventies, you have to love it. It's hard to believe this record is 40 years old.