Free And Easy
by Helen Reddy

Lead track "Angie Baby" was the third of three #1 Pop hits for Reddy in the US. It's a pretty good tune. And it's the closest thing to "cool" she ever sounded. But all good will is immediately lost with the abomination that follows it. Helen Reddy is one of those very very very whitebread singers who should never, ever, under any circumstances, attempt to rock. Just don't do it, Helen. Nothing good could possibly result.

But attempt it she does. And her version of the then recent Elvis hit, "Raised on Rock" is so unintentionally hilarious, it brings to mind the horror that was Pat Boone's neutering of "Tutti Frutti". Just listen to the way she sings the word "rock". It is humanly impossible to rock any less than that. Helen, you were clearly raised on Broadway show tunes and TV commercial jingles, NOT rock. So don't even try to front.

After that debacle, the album never recovers. The title track, "Free and Easy", literally sounds like a TV jingle hawking paper towels or shampoo or something. "Emotion" rises slightly above the pack, so it's no surprise it was the album's second single (#22 US). But the rest just sounds like leftovers from whatever album Barbra Streisand had out at the time.