Search - The Freddy Jones Band :: Time Well Wasted

Good, not great return album

Eric Cloninger | Oklahoma, USA | 04/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's been a long time for fans of FJB since we've seen an album of new material. With Time Well Wasted, we're given three new songs and ten concert recordings of their standards. Given that FJB is a jam band, best seen live, this shouldn't be much of a surprise.



The first three tracks--Home Thing, Contender, and Empty Room, are welcome additions to the FJB catalog. Multiple guitars, good harmonies, uplifting lyrics. Anyone who enjoyed Lucid, North Avenue Wakeup, or Waiting for the Night will feel at home and enjoy hearing something new.



The concert recordings on Time Well Wasted don't have much going for them. There are better recordings of most of those songs on Mile High Live or the Freddy Jones Band. In particular "And She Cried" comes off flat compared to the previous version. While it's always good to hear another rendition of "In a Daydream", this version lacks the energy of the live shows or even other previous live versions available on CD.



Old fans of FJB will want to pick up the disk to have them in their collection. The studio tracks will fit in fine and maybe the live tracks will find a place, depending on the listener. New fans, who might've heard "In a Daydream" on the radio and are looking for the right disk--you won't find the studio version here. "Waiting for the Night" has the version that is usually played on the radio, although the acoustic and live versions on "Freddy Jones Band" are great.



Even better, catch them live if you can.

"