Argent (1969)

Whereas the Zombies ended their (initial) career with an unexpected exclamation point (see Odessey and Oracle for more), Rod Argent's new self-named band had a hesitant beginning. Formed from a need to capitalize off the surprise success of the last Zombies' album, with only two Zombies having any level of enthusiasm to continue, the new band made some key changes. Bassist Chris White excused himself from performing and lent his songwriting skills to Argent's to form a writing team. Argent's cousin Jim Rodford, by White's own words a superior performer, took over his stage role. Meanwhile the mess left behind by the departures of guitarist Paul Atkinson and drummer Hugh Grundy was neatly filled by Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit, respectively, best known for being the "plus two" in Unit 4+2 and their catchy hit song "Concrete and Clay". As for vocals, no dedicated vocalist would replace Colin Blunstone, with singing duties split among all except Henrit.

Perhaps the overwhelming success of "Time of Season" made the band feel that success lay in a dreamy/breathless approach, which really only characterized the Zombies on their final album. Hence, you have an opener on this album that's very easy-breezy, with some Marc Bolan-esque vocals from Rodford, who handles about one-third of the singing duties on the album. Throughout the album, guitarist/singer Russ Ballard is particularly restrained and Rod himself doesn't cut loose on they keys nearly as much as he would on later albums. Thankfully, one minor hit, Ballard's "Liar", would keep the band afloat for years to come. Even though the Argent version was indeed "minor", another band, Three Dog Night, would pick it up and run with it, making it into a much larger hit and probably planting a seed in Ballard's mind about writing for bands other than his own.

Enough Argent albums have featured here that the story going forward has already been chronicled. Although the band never made it into the top tier of progressive rock bands, their progression from hesitant beginnings to near-jazz fusion territory makes for good listening.