CREEM Magazine
November , 1977
Album Review : In City Dreams
There can be no denying Robin Trower his position as one of rocks best guitarists, yet neither can he be denied the dubious honour of being the only one ever to put me asleep in mid show. And rumours to the contrary notwithstanding, he has not forsaken his distinctive, plodding wah-wah grind style of guitaring for the more structured, more danceable style of Don Davis producing. Not to say that R&B/Disco kingpin producer Davis input isn't present...it is very prominent in the beginning of the first song ( Somebody Calling) , appears momentarily in the middle of the second ( Sweet Wine Of Love) dominates the clearasil optimism of the third cut ( Bluebird), greases the forth and best cut ( Falling Star) with an easy slip and slide rhythm, but only to be beaten down with Robin's muff tone growl and singer Jimmy Dewar's Gaelic drone.
There's a lively acknowledgement of Trower's debt to the Hendrix Screech and Thump Blues genre in one number and even a genuinely very pretty, very soft, very sweet guitar intro on another where Robin makes his singing debut.
All told, three of the nine songs you probably wouldn't mind hearing more than once, plus if you hate disco than you'd be interested in how Trower and Co. manage to crawl over and conquer its predictable simplicity with their own sleepy noodling. So if you liked Trower before, then you'd be quite happy with this one "cause it's more of the same, but I'll be damned if he didn't put me to sleep on my typewriter.
Air Wreck Genheimer
My personal thoughts on this review are that this moron has obviously never listened to Trower in the past , was probably some editors nephew who couldn't find a real job and so they let him review albums for the magazine. It's this kind of shit that goes on that has kept Trower from being the huge commercial success he deserves to be.
I wonder how many potential new listeners were turned off by this review. Very sad. In City Dreams was a vastly different direction for Trower
and IMHO one of his better albums........Steve