Original Man

The second album released by Britain's Riff Raff was a further study in the textures of jazz-rock as they had been articulated not only on the band's issued debut, but also with Tommy Eyre and Pete Kirkley's stint with Mark-Almond. Here are seven rather extended forays into keyboard-drenched pop/rock that carried a jazz sensibility in its beak and dropped it thoroughly onto blues-based progressive rock. The title track is the most successful thing here, but "Speed" and "Goddamm the Man" are also tasty bits of free-floating arrangement and stellar tunesmithing. This album has aged exceedingly well over the decades.