Spiders From Mars (studio album)
by Spiders From Mars

From MadhattanJack 12 hours ago | #312005

Without David Bowie and Mick Ronson, the remaining members of the Spiders From Mars (Woody Woodmansey, Trevor Bolder and Mike Garson) hired singer Pete McDonald and guitarist Dave Black to make this album. You can hardly blame them, since Bowie's decision to abandon them had been a complete surprise and a unilateral decision, but it's unfortunate that they chose to become a conventional commercial boogie band, and not even a particularly good one, instead of the more theatrical glam-rock outfit they'd been before. Garson's piano is the only thing here that's genuinely reminiscent of the Bowie days, and there's precious little of that. Still, if you can get past the inherent sense of disappointment, it's not a bad mid-70s boogie-rock album - there are no standout tracks (I sort of like "I Don't Wanna Do No Limbo," but that might be because I once hurt myself trying to do limbo dancing and was horribly embarrassed), but if you liked groups like Foghat or the J. Geils Band, you might like this too.