Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Consumer Guide Album

Canned Heat: Future Blues [BGO, 1970]
However much sense Alan Wilson's death meant in his life, which was never happy, it was inappropriate to his art, which until the end continued to thrive in that strange, mildly affectless, ruefully blissed-out dreamscape he discovered in country blues. On this record his creative force, never imposing but always there to be enjoyed, is at a peak, and the rest of the band finally coheres--Bob Hite sounds like himself, and Harvey Mandel sounds like he and the rhythm section were made for each other. The first side, which runs through Wilson's "Shake It and Break It" and the painful "My Time Ain't Long" before climaxing with Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together," is the prize. I'm very sorry there won't be more like it. A-