I don't know why this album is called "Unlucky Boy", any more than the previous one was called "Imagination Lady". They do sound a bit like names of race-horses though, so maybe that's the reason.
OK, so I've moved from Chicken Shack's 5th to their 6th album now, and is it any better or any worse? WEll, it's slightly different, and this may be down to a change in personnel. Although Stan Webb still handles guitar and vocals, bass-player John Glascock has gone, and since the previous band was a three-piece, that leaves only Paul Hancox on drums. Chicken Shack is now a five-piece with the afforementioned Bob Daisley on bass, Tony Ashton on piano, and Chris Mercer on saxophone.
This has expanded Chicken Shack's sound somewhat, at the risk of losing some of the tightness of the previous power trio of Webb, Glascock and Hancox. But the band is still very much Webb's vehicle, and the music still dominated by his alternately soloing and riffing guitar. This was their last studio album for some years, as Chicken Shack finally disbanded after a live album in 1974, when Stan Webb left to join up with his old mates in Savoy Brown.
Is it any good? Yeah, I think so. In one sense it's very much of it's time, being almost indistinguishable from the British Heavy Rock bands that were themselves laying the foundations for the Heavy Metal of the late 70s. But in another sense it's also timeless, because it's the Blues, and the Blues always dates very well. A good solid album.
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