Status Quo – Quo
Released 1974
Track Listing
Side One
1 Backwater 4:21
2 Just Take Me 3:39
3 Break the Rules 3:40
4 Drifting Away 5.05
Side Two
1 Don’t Think it Matters 4:55
2 Fine Fine Fine 2:30
3 Lonely Man 5:00
Slow Train 7:55
In 1974 Status Quo released their seventh studio album. An album that would prove to be their heaviest. The album was simply titled ‘Quo’.
The heavier sound was due to bassist Alan Lancaster co-writing six of the albums eight songs (five co-written with guitarist Rick Parfitt). He also takes the lead vocal on four of them. The more commercial writing team of Rossi /Young still wrote three of the songs, but ‘Quo’ is different to previous albums in that the poppier tunes are not present. It is a true heads-down rock ‘n’ roller.
‘Quo’ blasts off with the rocking ‘Backwater’, a song that the band wanted to release as a single. Lancaster’s vocals blasting out over the strong guitar riff, this merges into ‘Just Take Me’ via a thumping John Coghlan drum beat. Coghlan really shines on this album. The single ‘Break the Rules’ is next, quite a bluesy, catchy number that reached number seven in the UK charts. Aide one ends with the furious ‘Drifting Away’
Side Two begins with the sing-along riff of ‘Don’t Think it Matters’ again the edgy vocals of Lancaster relaying his side of an argument to the listener. Rossi/Young’s ‘Fine Fine Fine’ the album’s most commercial number is next, and is a welcome relief to the heavier tracks. Then it’s back to the heavier sound of ‘Lonely Man’ before the album’s closing track and highlight ‘Slow Train’. ‘Slow Train’ takes us on a real journey with its different bluesy sections, the odd jig here and there and Coghlan’s rocking drum middle that thunders along, making this track stand out.
‘Quo’ is Status Quo at their very best, it is an album that offers the heaviest incarnation of the classic line up. It stands above albums like ‘Hello’ and ‘Blue For You’ by not having any ‘filler’ moments. I can highly recommend a listen.
Peter Devine 2016
