Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive!

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Never having had a copy of this seminal 70s statement — or even having heard anything other than The Famous Three Big Songs (Show Me The Way, Baby I Love Your Way and Do You Feel Like We Do) — I was delighted to see this 25th anniversary deluxe edition which comes with the obligatory gatefold sleeve, informative booklet and of course extra tracks.

How it would stand up after all those years — and of course against the cachet it has as an emblem of the era — would be another matter. Short answer: it sounds brilliant.

What Frampton didn't know at the time was just how the production — which allows for crowd noise throughout, such as that guy at every concert who goes "whoo-hoo" in the quiet bits — would become so much part of the experience. It not only is live, but feels live.

The Famous Big Three still sound fine (the meld of acoustic and electric instruments a chief feature of the album) and the also-ran Almost Famous Fourth (Lines on My Face) is pretty cool too.

And was it coincidence that Doobie Wah sounds alarmingly similar to the Doobie Brothers' earlier Listen to the Music?

But elsewhere over the two-disc haul there are places where this is a bit flabby and on the tedious side. I guess you had to be there. And lyric writing was never a craft Frampton could claim. Some of this is cringe-inducing.

But overall, this is surprisingly good and what with the Cameron Crowe Almost Famous movie connection (he was technical adviser and had a small part), it seems there might be a minor career revival.

Oddly enough, last week I went out and bought a copy of this on vinyl ($9.95). Every home should have one, I guess.

Label: Universal