Traffic

It's fine. Good even. Blues rock with some nods towards the psychedelics of the time. But there is no need for 2 Traffic albums to be on this list when so many much more significant artists aren't here at all.

2.5

habaja

Random thoughts: * Another Traffic album and again I just don't have much to say about it. * This album was what I would expect out of a Traffic album. Great musicianship and a bluesy/jazzy and mashed-up sort of genre rock n roll. It is as if Traffic invented KBCO. * The one thing that really stood out to me was Feelin' Alright. I did not know this was a Traffic song and just like many years ago with A Little Help From My Friends, I also assumed that was a Joe Cocker song. Joe had a way of making people's songs come to life and make them popular. * Anyway, solid music. Nothing to write home about. Glad I listened.

Listening to this was exactly like sitting in Traffic. Boring, doesn't go anywhere, frustrating and seemingly never ending. I don't like it.

This album is quite interesting mix of bluesy grooving and hippie pop, maybe even some proggy elements. Nothing too original here but i do enjoy this album's rootsy performance and classic songwriting.

Bluesy, folky and some psychedelic vibes. After few tracks feeling fine and same goes all the way.

This album had it's monents.

#51 / 1089 Heard before? ❌ ✅ Revisit? ❌ ✅ The name rings some bells, but I can't put my finger on it. Probably the psychedelic early stuff or through the member's latter groups. Dunno. This album has it's moments, but it's way too close to radio friendly AOR than I like. Few cool tracks, nice guitar action here and there, but that's about it. Luke warm 3/5

I knew from the VERY 60's cover that this was going to be good, and it didn't disappoint. I loved the mix of genres explored on the album. No Time to Live was a highlight for me. 3.5 stars!

One of the best discoveries of this challenge has been Traffic and Steve Winwood. I've become a huge fan of their music and have been working my way through Winwood's back catalogue. I love the combination of rock, jazz, soul and R&B, the brilliant musicianship and, of course, Winwood's fantastic voice. I was really looking forward to today's listen. *Traffic*, the band's self-titled album, certainly didn't disappoint. What a great record this is! It's a wonderful mixture of rock, soul, jazz and psychedelia, with some really funky, almost danceable rhythms running throughout. What I particularly like about Traffic is how difficult they are to pin down to one genre. There's so much going on musically, but it all comes together brilliantly. The guitar and keyboard playing is excellent, the arrangements are interesting, and there's a lovely loose, almost improvisational feel to some of the songs. Steve Winwood's vocals are fantastic, as always. He has such a distinctive, soulful voice, and it works perfectly with the music. The songwriting is excellent too, with some lovely lyrics and melodies that make this a really enjoyable listen. "Pearly Queen" is a cracking tune and probably my favourite track, although there are so many good songs here that it's difficult to pick just one. Overall, *Traffic* is another superb album from a band I've really grown to love. It's full of great musicianship, interesting sounds and excellent songwriting. I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish, and it's definitely an album I'll keep coming back to. Discovering Traffic and Steve Winwood has been one of the real highlights of this challenge. Favourite track: "Pearly Queen". A fantastic song, although there are plenty of other great tracks on the album. Least favourite track: Nothing really. Everything on the album is worth a listen, and I enjoyed it throughout. Album artwork: A fairly standard album cover. Nothing particularly exciting, but perfectly fine.

me gustó

It was described as folksy blues-rock so I was very excited...meh, it's fine.

So versatile. Last song is the best.

Like wow man. I feel this type of folk/rock(?) music has dated more than almost any other genre, but quite enjoyed it nonetheless.

Grew up with this but isn't holding up as I had thought it would. Still worth a listen. Best tracks: Feelin' Alright, Vagabond Virgin, Cryin' to be Heard Rating: 7.5/10

Uh very normal? Not offensive. Not overly interesting. Not bad but hardly noticed it.

A classic freedom rock album. Nothing too special about it.

pretty funky/soulful for some old white dudes

Sounded more like Birmingham Alabama than the West Midlands. Quite childish, I thought. Not really noteworthy.

that was good! cool cool. very timeless from being made in the 60s.

I really like the vibe and classic sound… Will listen to more traffic

Solid 60ies rock

Helt OK

3.5

Steve Winwood just has an amazing voice. Definitely suites this style of music. Dave Mason is no slouch either. His tracks have maybe the more pop flair. With him even having the big hit off this album “Feelin’ Alright” I think I prefer Winwoods voice overall and when I think off Traffic I think of him. But I think songs I enjoyed the most were Masons. His slow track “Don’t Be Sad” is really good ballad and done well musically from the band. Overall it’s a really good album 3.5 but will round up to 4. Nothing really wrong with it besides maybe the lyrical intent of “Vegabond Virgin” didn’t hate the music but lyrics had me scratching my head a bit.

-Hey lass uns mal noch ein folk-poppiges Album mit allen aktuell gängigen Musikstilen machen. -Okay. Aber nur wenn wir maximal betonen was für Mucker wir sind. Und jedes Lied muss maximal anders instrumentiert sein, dann aber im gleichen Gedudel aufgehen - Muss es gut sein? - Humbug, einfach alles reinpacken was geht! Und dann einfach noch einmal auflegen mit noch mehr pointless songs!

I don't know if we should name our band "Root Canal Surgery." What else do people endure as a fact of life but hate. Uncle Vasectomy and the Income Taxes? No? I think the uncle thing is played out now. How about a nice bout of traffic. Yeah, just picture it! Sitting behind an endless procession of vehicles going slower than they need to on your way to an office that has the same internet as you have at home. Cart yourself to a far away building that could be used to house the homeless, spending your own time and your own resources in order to do what could easily be done in your own home. Yeah! Now I'm ready to ROCK. This album had the appropriate amount of "white boi funk" for the first half but then ended up being kind of boring. I didn't hate this though which is a huge boon to my week. Boon is a great word for obvious reasons. I mean check out that letter composition. The phonetics are unreal on that sucker. I need to depend on words like that to carry these increasingly content-less reviews straight through to the unread status below terrible meme-laden tripe from the rest of this site's users. 3 HIGHLIGHTS: Barm Pegurds, Attoney at Law

I love Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and John Barleycorn Must Die, and like Traffic in general - I even bought a Traffic t-shirt from when I got a free ticket to see Dave Mason - but this album is not their strongest. There are flashes of brilliance like the solo in "Pearly Queen" and anytime Steve Winwood is at the organ, but otherwise, meh.

I don’t spend much time revisiting Classic Rock these days, but this album reminds me of what I always liked about Traffic: rich instrumentation (especially flute, the big Hammond B3 and even the normally fusty harpsichord) and free-flowing, richly composed songs that borrow from British folk and lean into jazz, with little psychedelic flourishes here and there. It’s a little long, though, and could benefit from trimming a few tracks.

Steve windwood is the musician who exemplifies unexciting competency in the Classic Rock Canon for me. Can I name more than 5 hits of his? Yes. Are they inoffensive and have not aged poorly? Yes. Would I ever crave a listen to these tracks? Nope.

One of those fun pre-breakup albums where go and see the different factions heading off in their own directions. Wildly incoherent as a whole, but has and handful of good songs.

Those who refuse to rock, we salute you. I had never heard of this band and it turns out that the reason is that they are bland and forgettable.

Excellent 60s rock.

Oh hey it's the band from that guy who had that solo album I hated. This is a little better. But only a little.

Groovy, helps to have a soft spot for late 60s rock Playlist add: “Means to an End”

Winwood's songs are alright, the rest is pretty forgettable and all over the place. Nothing special about some white dudes adapting blues, soul and folk in the sixties.

Just OK Early 1970's riffs.

Сара 3,5 Марко 4

The missus said this sounded like music from a children's TV show, but good. I felt it was alright.

Yet another late 60s album.They can’t all have been derivative so sadly this gets a list mark.

This took a while to get going, but get going it did. Folk/rock/pop infused with some listenable saxophone. And some hair envy.

Listened while in traffic and it just blended into the background. Nothing to keep me interested

Having been introduced to Winwood through Arc of a Diver and Higher Love it's fascinating to hear his earlier stuff (albeit aided and abetted by Capaldi). Some really strong songs and brilliant arrangements. Especially when he gets his funk on. Some of it feels a bit dated though. 3*

Typical 60's fare, ok but not special. 2

Pretty forgettable stuff. The guitar solo on ‘Pearly Queen’ piqued my interest briefly. The only other highlight was ‘Feelin’ Alright?’, a lovely track.

I listened to this yesterday but sadly I have very little recollection of this already. That speaks volumes about the impact this must have had on my attention. I do have 'Bring me a Higher Love' running through my head as I type this, which is just a bit screwed up and really nothing to do with this, apart from it being Steve Winwood's best known song. The fact that I had to go back a and skim through the album again to refresh my mind makes this lose a star straight away. On to the album - if the Beatles and the Stones had a baby it would probably sound a bit like this. The tunes were solid, the playing excellent, but nothing particularly outstanding.

This was a nice find! I had heard of Traffic but never listened to them. It was a variety of sounds but all well done.

The blend of rock, pop, psychedelia is packaged in an aesthetically pleasing and occasionally slapping way. Fascinating to picture this as part of what the Beatles and Stones were doing in this same era.

I guess all revelations are unexpected, but Traffic's self-titled release is the redefinition of what it means for a record to catch you by surprise. Of the albums I've listened to this year, only Gene Clark's No Other surpasses the feeling of discovering something new I now associate w/ Traffic. A funky, & folksy, & psychedelic, & above all catchy record, it ne'er does what it isn't in the end supposed to, but then again, it plays by no rules but its own. For the most part, I say no to the incorporation of flute-play on rock albums - it suggests Jethro Tull & all things bad in Britishisms - yet e'en the flute is a welcome addition to Traffic's landscape. Now, I also recognize that it flirts w/ prog, & I shudder to think of where Traffic will go after, but this is prime.

would probably like it more if it was shorter (2.5/5.0)

A British revelation in pushing the boundaries in rock’s early days but never so far as to lose the listener or the enjoyment

Combines the worst aspects of hippie rock (complete with aimless guitar noodling), whitebread R&B and low-grade prog into a thin, flavorless soup. Even the band's own version of "Feelin' Alright" has all the excitement of a wet noodle.

Pretty solid, underrated perhaps

eh

This had a lot of _Dazed and Confused_ vibes about it, which works for me! Perhaps faded in the second half but would bear repeat listens.

Steve Winwood has always had a niche as the Blackest-sounding White guy in rock, and that's on display on his songs here ("Pearly Queen"). Which raises the question of why the less-talented Dave Mason is allowed to sing so many of these songs. The answer seems to be that he wrote them, and I guess the *real* problem here is exactly that - the writing. Neither Winwood nor Mason nor Jim Capaldi seem to be able to write a decent lyric; the closest anybody comes is on Mason's "Feelin' Alright," which is competent. But nothing really lands, and that's particularly galling from a band who seem to think they are saying something profound. And while there are some decent musical touches here and there (most notably the jazzy "No Time to Live"), they once again seemingly can't keep up the needed effort. I've thought my whole life that I loved the psychedelic era, and that the hatred for it in some circles was overblown. Turns out I just hadn't heard enough of the rank and file of the era to understand why it would be tiresome.

"Traffic" is an album very much of its time. It's a good listen but not 'essential' for me. Side one 1 "You Can All Join In" (3/5) 2 "Pearly Queen" (4/5) 3 "Don't Be Sad" (3/5) 4 "Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring" (3/5) 5 "Feelin' Alright?" (3/5) Side two 6 "Vagabond Virgin" (3/5) 7 "Forty Thousand Headmen" (4/5) 8 "Cryin' to Be Heard" (3/5) 9 "No Time to Live" (3/5) 10 "Means to an End" (3/5) Total - 32 Average - 3.2 444/1001 236/444 albums reviewed were new to me.

Not for me. 1/5

An exceptionally 1001 Albums album to be generated last for my group. Self-titled 60s psych rock with a follow-up album called John Barleycorn Must Die? I'm glad it was short and I'm glad I liked it as much as I did.

I suppose it's only fitting that my final album assignment is a meandering British folky rock release that I forgot almost immediately after finishing. Godspeed, 1001lbums. Thanks for a lot, but not for that.

The middest of mid. It's unclear to my why this is on this list outside of a purely historical context. We should shoot most records like this into the sun.

Some good basic ass 60s rock. Way too many songs though.

I was never much of a fan of Traffic. There's a bad pun to add, but I'll restrain myself. I do, however, enjoy much of Steve Winwood's solo output (especially the Arc of a Diver album), for what it's worth. Listening to this record today was fine. There were no standout songs (I much prefer Joe Cocker's version of Feelin' Alright), but no true duds either. This is my third album in a row of choices I will likely forget I'd listened to in a very short time.

This was fine, but not hugely exciting. I wasn't desperate to hear any more.

Sehr abwechslungsreich allein deshalb schon toll

Helt greit. Inn det ene øret og ut det andre.

I myldret av 60-tallsband, så var dette datidens Maroon 5.

Deilig sound. Koste mæ. OBS! Plata slutte etter Means To An End

Litt intetsigende?

Was just bopping my big head along to the tracks in order, and it felt like a standard folk/rock album for the time. I'd never heard of the band before and figured this was the reason why. Run of the mill, nothing special. I was pretty firmly sitting at a 2. Then "No Time to Live" came on. The song starts off as a slow piano tickler, but just builds into this warm ballad that picks up the pace toward the end. Suddenly this was looking more like a 3. Then things started getting a little weirder, including a song about the fucking mulberry bush that I somehow enjoyed, until "Shanghai Noodle Factory," which is just a fun and funky song about what? I don't know, I assume mushrooms given the time period, but it doesn't really matter. I really did not see a 4 coming after those first few tracks, but the second half of this album gets a little stanky, in a good way. 4/5. Edit: I just found out Shanghai Noon is not on the original album, back down to 3. Oh well

As a fan...If I had to name four Traffic albums you need to hear before you die, this one still wouldn't make the list. "Feelin' Alright?" is a great, great song, but there are plenty of superior covers available, Skip this one and listen to Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends" album instead.

You Can All Join In 3.8 Pearly Queen 4 Don't Be Sad 3.7 Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring 3.7 Feelin' Alright? 3.9 Vagabond Virgin 3.3 Forty Thousand Headmen 3.5 Cryin' to Be Heard 3.8 No Time to Live 3.4 Means to an End 3.3 Score: 3.64

prima

A bunch of British whites lacking the soul to execute what a good blues record requires to keep my attention. I’ll give credit where credit is due, feelin alright is a banger and winwood does a fine job arranging the songs, but it’s got nothing else for me (plus I’m pretty sure there is a song about a 13 yr old virgin, fucking boomers man). Just like real life traffic, I ain’t got no time for this. 2.

I really, really like this album. *Traffic* is absolutely steeped in that late-60s British R&B sound that I love so much, sharing a ton of musical DNA with the Kinks, Stones, Who, Cream, and even early Jethro Tull. It's that wonderful period when British rock bands were taking American blues and R&B, mixing in jazz, psychedelia, folk, and whatever else they could get their hands on, and creating something entirely their own. And when Traffic gets it right, they get it really fucking right. What's become pretty clear to me, though, is that I much prefer the Steve Winwood material to the Dave Mason stuff. Songs like "Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring" and "40,000 Headmen" are fantastic. I absolutely love the way these tracks start out so eerie, sparse, and open, almost like the band is feeling its way through the music in real time. There's this loose, freeform quality to the arrangements, with instruments drifting in and out, little musical ideas appearing and disappearing, and then suddenly everything starts to coalesce into these enormous, heavy blues-rock jams. That's the stuff that really gets me going. When they start stretching out into that Cream- or Who-style rock-out territory, with the bass practically playing its own melody, the keyboards doing something completely different, and the drums holding the whole thing together through sheer force of will. There's so much musical conversation happening. Everyone seems to have the freedom to explore their own ideas without losing the thread of the song. It's loose and improvisational, but never aimless. Just truly awesome stuff. And Winwood is such a phenomenal musician. His voice has that soulful, bluesy quality that sounds like it belongs to someone who's been singing in smoky clubs for about forty years, despite the fact that he was barely out of his teens when this album came out. His organ playing is terrific, too. There's something about that Hammond-driven British blues-rock sound that I find almost impossible to resist. It's warm, gritty, occasionally jazzy, and capable of turning even a relatively simple musical idea into something that feels enormous. Now, don't get me wrong, Dave Mason certainly has his moments. "Feelin' Alright?" is an absolute classic and easily his crowning achievement on this record. It's one of those songs with such a naturally great groove and such a timeless melody that it's almost impossible to screw up. There's a reason it became a standard, and the original version more than holds its own. But some of Mason's other material just doesn't work nearly as well for me. "You Can All Join In," "Don't Be Sad," and "Vagabond Virgin" have this distinctly late-60s, almost music-hall sing-along quality that feels a little dated. Campy, maybe. I don't quite want to call it corny, because there's clearly some charm there, but it's definitely not the side of Traffic that interests me most. There's something a little too cheerful, a little too whimsical, a little too self-consciously swinging-Sixties about it. And that's really the interesting contrast on this album. The more whimsical, pop-oriented material feels very much like a product of 1968, whereas the bluesier, jazzier, more exploratory stuff feels practically timeless. You could drop some of those Winwood-led jams into a set by Cream, the Allman Brothers, or any number of great improvisational rock bands, and they'd fit right in. There's an organic quality to that music that doesn't really age. Great musicians locking into a groove, listening to one another, and letting the song develop naturally. That's always going to work for me. I also love how this record captures that moment before the boundaries between rock genres had really hardened. It's psychedelic without necessarily being psychedelic rock, progressive without being prog, jazzy without being jazz-rock, and bluesy without being strictly blues. It feels like a band experimenting with all these different sounds before anybody had figured out what to call them. Sometimes the results are a little uneven, but when everything clicks, it's fantastic. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this record. There's a handful of songs that feel a little trapped in their era, but the highlights are genuinely excellent, and the musicianship is consistently impressive. Give me the spooky, spacious intros, the soulful Winwood vocals, the swirling organ, and those extended blues-rock grooves all day long. 8.1/10. More Winwood, less whimsy.

What's this first song? The Scarn? idk- seems like a one hit wonder to me.

It's boomer rock. I like the bluesey sound the organ and some of the guitar riffs give. I actually really miss blues in modern music now that I think about it. Other than that, it isn't much to write home about. The riffs are decent, but repetetive, same with the singing. It's fun and upbeat, but nothing that has changed my life.

Nothing bad with this album, pretty decent music (especially the more experimental stuff later). Though there also wasn't anything particularly grabbing or interesting.

A solid album truly reflective of the time period. Starts strong but fades a bit towards the end. Still solid.

Ok, kinda bland.

This is a fine enough album but pales in comparison to their debut. Part of the problem is that Dave Mason only wrote one track on their debut (US version which I am more familiar with) and has half of the songs here. Steve Winwood’s songs are generally stronger. I knew of their debut through Dan, who had it among his limited album collection. It had wild stereo effects of music and voices arcing from one speaker to the other and back again. I did a speech class demo freshman or sophomore year on stereo music and used a track from the album along with others (e.g., The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Daydream and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, and something from Rubber Soul or Revolver). Winwood is known mostly for his keyboard work, but he is a very underrated guitar player, IMO.

Thoughts before listening: British jazz rock band that was a major influence on alot of the jambands I enjoy. I'm pretty sure I own this. Review: Actually I don't own this. I largely know of Traffic because of jamband covers by Widespread Panic and Phish. Those bands were pulling from their later more jazzy album, but this earlier album leans a bit more into blues rock ala Cream and folky sounds similar to what a band like Fairport Convention was doing around the same time. That being said, you can hear some of their later sound seaping in, especially in the hit "Feelin Alright" which is keyboard led with horn solos. This album has some highlights, but does lose me on some tracks. I'll give it 3-stars.

Nobody: Classic Rock Artists(for some reason): "Fuck the war, and kids". Favorite Track: "No Time To Live".

They should've just been called Pedestrian and called it a day

Generic 60s blues Psychedelia with one song that's well known because Joe Cocker dddidd a better version and another song about under-age sex. Can we just agree that any album with a song about an under age groupie automatically makes it one star?

I really like Traffic, and I guess I really like Steve winwood, which is good because I grew up in the 80s, and Steve winwood of that period was real schlock. The Traffic albums are great. This is probably my least favorite of all the Traffic albums, but still very much worth listening to, in my opinion.

Totally fine 60's rock, but didn't grab me significantly.

I’ve known about this band and definitely heard songs by then but this is the first time sitting down with the album. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I worried it was another UK blues rock band but this is closer to the Americana sounds like The Band and Grateful Dead which is my preference. I’ll be revisiting this one.

3/5 ⭐️ 266/1081

Fine

Nothing memorable!

Meh. It's nice but I didn't care about it.

This was both better and worse than I was expecting. Not sure how. Solid 3.

Smooth

Pas mal faut que j’ybretourne

Few good tracks, the rest was either forgettable or annoying.

Traffic, die 1967 in Birmingham gegründete englische Band um Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood und Dave Mason, brachte ihr zweites, selbstbetiteltes Album im September 1968 bei Island Records heraus, in den USA über United Artists. Aufgenommen haben sie es in den Olympic Studios in London und, für einige Stücke, im New Yorker Record Plant – produziert von Jimmy Miller, kurz nachdem Mason der Band den Rücken gekehrt hatte und im Frühjahr 1968 zurückgekehrt war. Genrelich sitzt das Album zwischen Folk-Rock und Jazz-Fusion, mit spürbaren psychedelischen Resten aus der Debütphase. Was mich an diesem Album trägt, ist die Reibung zwischen Masons unbeschwerten, songwriterhaften Stücken – "You Can All Join In" wirkt fast wie hingeworfen – und den ausgreifenderen Winwood/Capaldi-Nummern. "Pearly Queen" hat einen fast schon jazzigen Drive, "Forty Thousand Headmen" driftet ins Traumhafte ab. Man hört zwei Bands in einer, und Mason wurde dafür kurz darauf wieder rausgeworfen. "Feelin' Alright?" trägt das Album bis heute, auch wenn Joe Cockers Version ein Jahr später bekannter wurde als das Original. Für mich bleibt aber die Coverversion nicht das bessere Stück – Traffics Fassung hat einen lässigeren Groove, der bei Cocker verlorengeht. Insgesamt eine Band kurz vor dem ersten Bruch, aber musikalisch noch vollständig bei sich. Ein Album, das seine zwei Songwriter nie zu einer Stimme verschmilzt – und genau darin liegt sein Reiz.

This was boring. Feeling alright is cool little groove but the rest. Meh. I know Steve winwood is a legendary guy and all but this record didn’t bring it for me.

It was okay...the only songs I really enjoyed were 'Feelin' All Right' and '40,000 Headman' the rest seemed very vanilla, even considering the 1968 context.