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Rare Bird
Sympathy

Q Magazine, 45-1990, page 124:

Rare Bird were one of those brave few bands of the progressive era who ventured forth with two lead keaboard players in the heyday of the guitar-lead group. Alas, they only had one good song - the stark and haunting Sympathy which still sounds as memorable and as effective now as it did in 1969 - and though they could occasionally sound quite soulful when they chose, there were no Steve Winwoods aboard and Rare Bird simply lacked the imagination or instrumental inventiveness to beef up the rest of their rather plodding and melodically weak material. This mid-price CD pulls together the best of their two albums for Charisma from 1969 and 1970 but apart from the title track and the atypically straightforward love song Beautiful Scarlet there's not much that deserves reviving.

© 1990 Ian Cranna - Q Magazine