Poco - Pickin' Up the Pieces

Epic Records

"Pickin' Up the Pieces" is an ostensible album, really. You would think after his experience with the Buffalo Springfield, Richie Furay's songs would have a bit more to them, a hint of flavour or something, but that isn't the case at all. 

"Foreword", despite being only forty-eight seconds long, is without a doubt the best song on this record. Richie's voice crackles like burning wood, it is raw and painful like an open sore. If your stereo wasn't turned up loud enough chances are you'd miss this minuscule song entirely. It feels uprooted in a sense, speckled like an old black and white photograph. The only problem with packing so much emotion into your opener is that it leaves apparently none left over for the rest of the album. 

"What a Day" cuts in from "Foreword" and does a complete 180 into upbeat, fastidious, produced, happy-go-lucky music. The thick country stylings and cheesecloth drumming (thin, weak, limp, etc.) cause the song to feel almost outdated in a way--country rock was just starting out and already it felt overdone. The same can be said for the rest of the album. 

Smooth yet disjointed is "Nobody's Fool", with out of place horn work and vocal harmonies and bass parts that sound particularly R&B. The lyrics are excruciatingly simple, moving on from the more imaginative words of the Springfield days into something closer to being pedestrian. At some point Richie screams like he was just shoved down a small flight of stairs for whatever reason, maybe to try and insert a little more passion into the song. The middle solo was nice but is overshadowed by the fact the high harmonies don't click, and the out solo was alright--not groovy or psychedelic, but quite "good ole boy" due to the country feelings.

Poco tries to be foreboding in the intro to "Calico Lady", which almost works but this band isn't heavy enough for that. "First Love" is slower and runs like water, and despite the steel guitar feature the initial interest wanes very quickly--the rather pretty vocal harmonies even fail to do much at all. 

So far, this is quite a zero-sum of an album, with nothing succinctly distinct about the songs, lyric or sound-wise. There is no underlying drama or anything to any of the album except for "Foreword", and I will cease to write anymore about this record or I'll start to repeat myself. A shame, really. I had such high hopes for this one. 

Rating: 3/5