Robin Trower: Something’s About To Change

Virtuoso blues/rock guitarist releases new album on 70th birthday.

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Something, somewhere may be about to change – the composition of the European Union following the election result in Greece, perhaps. What was never likely to change, and indeed does not here, is Robin Trower’s approach to laying down blues rock. He’s touching on 70, after all.

So, as expected, he continues to plough the furrow he’s made his own, revisiting American blues in fretboard stylings whose virtuoso, liquid quality remind impressively of Hendrix at his most swamp-fevered and chatty.

He plays guitar and bass here (Chris Taggart plays drums), working off a settled template with lyrics and song titles occasionally touching on his vintage – the chipper Riff No. 7 (Still Alive), the gloomier Good Morning Midnight – or looking back on his heritage on Dreams That Shone Like Diamonds.

This is an album from a man who has long proven his point and said all he had to say but who is understandably keen to keep his hand in. No surprises but no disappointment either for aficionados./o:p

David Stubbs

David Stubbs is a music, film, TV and football journalist. He has written for The Guardian, NME, The Wire and Uncut, and has written books on Jimi Hendrix, Eminem, Electronic Music and the footballer Charlie Nicholas.