Consumer Guide Album

Free: Heartbreaker [Island, 1973]
"I was walking in the rain with my shoes untied," a line from newcomer Rabbit Bundrick, sums them up--I don't know myself whether it's a cleverly modified cliché or an overgrown one. But I do know that if Free at Last was simply listless this is actively deficient in formal acuteness. Andy Fraser has been replaced by both Bundrick's generally unnecessary keyboards (check out his organ on the otherwise engaging "Travellin in Style") and Tetsu Yamauchi's more stolid bass. Paul Kossoff, replaced by other guitarists on half the tracks, sounds like he's pursuing a solo career when he's on. And Paul Rodgers sounds more full of himself than his songs or his guitar warrant. C+