Wishbone Ash – Locked In

Take this record for What it is, and don’t compare it to their earlier recordings. Funk and blues plus r&r. Free Your mind and Your ass Will follow . I like it. 3.8.

Locked In marked a departure for the band. New producer - Tom Dowd famed for his work on some of the most seminal soul tunes of the 60s plus with rock albums including Derek & the Dominoes' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Also the first cover not designed by Hipgnosis. Spending just 2 weeks in the UK charts with a peak of #36 and getting to #136 in Billboard Album Chart.
This is the UK first vinyl release MCF 2750.
For me the production is fine, the songs are a little poppy and the cover sucks big time

In working my way through the WA catalog, it seems with "Locked In" I've run into the weakest point of the band's 70's output. I can't really dump on this album too much tho. It's not awful, but the word "uninspired" comes to mind. Slow in tempo and weak in songwriting, this album just doesn't do it for me. It's not the Wishbone Ash that I love. And that's okay. This album wasn't made for someone born in the late 1990's to analyze 45 years after its release.
The highest point of the record is the second and third tracks of side 2. Musically, "Locked In" reminds me very much of "New England's" side 2, and not in a good way. Truthfully, I don't have much more to say about the tracks themselves.
In a retrospective review of a 45 year old album I feel that I can say much more about the band's stylistic progression and changes, so I'll hit on that quickly. While listening to "Locked In", I reflected on just how much this band changes up their sound for each album. From the heavy, bluesy prog of the 1970 self-titled album, to the epic "Argus", the massive pop curveball of "Wishbone Four", "There's the Rub"'s twin-lead hard rock manifesto, "New England" with its mixed bag of hard rockers with slower laid back tracks. And then this, "Locked In", an album full of funk, grooves, and American blues sounds.
Lots of bands can continually shift styles, but few can do it this quickly and adeptly, as it's not always great, but is always well-performed and convincing.

Pop rock? Are you sure? It's almost sacrilege I'm sure