Track Listing

1. I Am And So Are You
2. Night Flight
3. I Wonder If I'll Care As Much
4. Mr Joy
5. Three Sisters
6. Coconut Grove
7. All Along The Watchtower
8. Eli's Coming
9. United States Of Mind
10. Yes Man
11. If You Live
12. I Am The Walrus
13. You Met Your Match
14. Long Voyage
15. Little Lonely Man

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58975 in Music
• Released on: 2002-03-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Early Vertigo gem
Though reputedly jazz-influenced, Affinity's 1970-released album is rock in the spirit of its age, composed mainly of radical interpretations of outside material. Lynton Naiff's Hammond playing and Linda Hoyle's Julie Driscoll-like vocal are the most prominent elements, but the sound tends to be a dense and intense melting pot of all its components, which, on the louder, faster sections seem to bleed into one another.

Personal favourites are 'Night Flight' with slow, haunting sections sandwiching an exhilarating middle section, as well as the brooding 'Mr Joy', on which Linda Hoyle goes all breathy. 'Three Sisters' features some great guitar-led jamming while some of the tracks benefit from being augmented by brass. My only reservation of the album proper is yet another cover of 'All Along The Watchtower' which is overlong and overdone.

The eight bonus tracks are culled from a wide variety of sources. The spirited cover of Laura Nyro's 'Eli's Coming' is probably Hoyle's doing as she recorded another Nyro song on her solo album. The rest of the songs are of variable quality, both with regard to content and sound. Mose Allison's 'If You Live' is pretty good, 'Long Voyage' deserves a clearer sound and 'I Am The Walrus' is of dubious potential for anyone to tackle. Only a couple of these tracks are original, 'Yes man' being mediocre, 'Little Lonely Man' the product of a crude recording.

'Affinity' is, overall, a fine purchase for fans of rock of the progressive spirit of the time, but all the best music is in the first six tracks.

Wonderful singing from unique (and vanished) singer
Linda Hoyle has a wonderful voice, at times sounding like Grace Slick (Airplane) and Julie Driscoll (Wheels on Fire) or a mixture of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday or Ella Fiztgerald - blues jazz and rock to suit all tastes.
Here she sings on Affinity's only album - matched by some excellent musicians, with an especial mention for Lynton Naiff on hammond organ - although this can get a little over-blown at points!
Best Tracks include:
- Coconut Grove : slow soul ballad
- Mr Joy : Airplane style rock
- All Along the Watchtower : stunning organ solos with brilliant vocals.
If you enjoyed this, then do try Linda Hoyle's solo album - "Pieces of Me", on which she is backed by bits of Soft Machine!

Oh, shut up, and let them play!
It's really a good album to hear, except for the hollering of lead singer Hoyle, which tends to kill the groove the other get into while playing, especially on the cover versions of the Everly Brothers' "I Wonder If I Care Too Much" and The Lovin' Spoonful "Coconut Grove".
The other group members play the acid/psychedelic/prog variations well and carry songs such as Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" to strange, curious and wonderful parts of the imagination.
The bonus tracks (especially the single "Eli's Coming/United State of Mind") are a good addition to the album, particulary the surprisingly good vocal of hoyle on the single's A side.