I'm already pretty familiar with Traffic, and this album opens with one of my favorite instrumentals of all time. "Glad" is a nice way to break the existential bleakness of High Violet.
It's funny, but in the past I never really liked "Freedom Rider" very much, but I find myself grooving to it right now. I'm not sure if I'm just getting used to the discordant progression, or if it's just because Traffic has so much more energy than The National in pretty much every respect. Even though "Freedom Rider" is a bleak tune, it's still an energetic one. I'm mostly impressed with drummer Jim Capaldi.
This album only has 6 songs on it but is standard album length, which means the songs drag on a little bit in the instrumentals. But the music is nearly perfect, a great blend of jazz improvisation with late-60s hard rock. The title track is an extended cover of a traditional folk tune, and features great harmonies. The sound is top-notch, right in that sweet spot when music still sounded crunchy but hadn't yet reached over-smooth digitalness. Check it out if you haven't heard it. 4 stars.
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