Creedence Clearwater Revival

In the future, Mardi Gras may be known as Fogerty's Revenge. After all the carping about
his egotism, and after the published complaints from his co-workers about his hogging the
show, he has done what I never thought he would: allowed his cohorts to expose
themselves in public. Ceding six of the new album's ten selections to drummer Doug Clifford
and bassist Stu Cook may have been an invitation to artistic suicide for them, but... More >

For a while I forgot my John Fogerty fixation and enjoyed side two of this country-rock debut, which is what asking Stu Cook and Doug Clifford to sing and compose transforms the seventh Creedence album into. But facts are facts. Only "Sweet Hitch-Hiker," an original as unambitious as the equally effecting cover of "Hello Mary Lou," could stand on any of Creedence's great albums. "Lookin' for a Reason" and "Someday Never Comes" may be major songs, but it's hard to tell from the way Fogerty sings them. And only inspired Fogerty vocals might save C&C's competent-plus to competent-minus filler from a lifetime in Lodi. (Grade: B)