I love Creedence Clearwater Revival and have since I was a kid. They existed in my favorite era of music, the late-60s/early-70s. They played a pleasing blend of southern-folk-blues rock. They had John Fogerty's iconic powerful high tenor vocals. In the band's short lifespan they recorded a large collection of beautiful songs that are still classic rock staples to this day. Basically, if you're someone who actively dislikes CCR, there's something wrong with your sense of hearing.
One thing that makes me unsure of how this review will go is I've only ever really heard CCR's most popular compilation album Chronicle, Vol 1., so I'm a bit worried their studio albums won't have the same punch as a collection of their biggest hits. I'm also perturbed by any band that has more compilations than studio albums. The count for CCR is 7 studio albums and 17 compilations. Yikes! Then again that same problem hasn't stopped me from loving The Who.
"Ramble Tamble" opens the album and drives me a bit nuts. It starts out as a simple hoe-down rock track for about a minute and a half. Then the band begins a five-minute extended jam session revolving around 3 boring chords before circling back around to the hoe-down section. I'd probably feel better about this song if it wasn't hitting leadoff, and if the breakdown were shorter and faded out slowly or something. It's really bad if an album starts off with five minutes of padding. It does sound awesome at least.
Cosmo's Factory features the following CCR megahits: "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Up Around The Bend", and "Who'll Stop The Rain", along with lesser hits "Long as I Can See the Light", "Run Through The Jungle", and "Travelin' Band". Most of the rest of the album is filler in the form of covers, including an interminably long version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." You're not really missing much if you just listen to the hits of this one, all of which are found on the aforementioned Chronicle, Vol 1. In this case the hits are big enough to elevate the filler, and it certainly helps that CCR has such a unique awesome sound. 4 stars.
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