Consumer Guide Album

Jefferson Starship: Red Octopus [Grunt, 1975]
This is indeed their most significant record of the decade, but what does it signify? It's their first number-one album, but it sells to an audience that refuses to distinguish between production values and musical ideas. While the returned Marty Balin is the most soulful folkie ever to set voice to plastic, he remains a mushbrain--the paragon to whom he addresses "Miracles" is actually compared to both a river and a stringed instrument. And to call "I Want to See Another World" and "There Will Be Love" jive-ass would be to imply that standard-brand American bullshit has style. B-