Colosseum

Although the cover of this CD reissue announces that this is an "expanded edition" in fairly large type in the lower right corner, the actual extras on this disc are mild. The single bonus track is a version of "Jumping Off the Sun" which, unlike the original version from their 1970 U.S.-only LP The Grass Is Greener, has a Chris Farlowe vocal from early 1971. It does, like several other Sanctuary reissues of Colosseum albums, benefit from excellent, lengthy historical liner notes by David Wells. So all things considered, if you're buying Daughter of Time for the first time, this is the edition to get, even if the bonuses aren't anything to send you over the moon. As for the album -- Colosseum's third (or fourth if you count The Grass Is Greener) -- it was a bit of a new direction, largely due to the presence of Chris Farlowe, who gave the group's commendable but uneven progressive rock-jazz-blues a more bombastic flavor. As their songwriting grew more ambitious, so too did it get somewhat more morose and ominous, and a little further away from (though hardly abandoning) their jazz-blues roots. Songwriting wasn't their big strength, though, as evidenced by how the cover of Jack Bruce and Pete Brown's "Theme for an Imaginary Western" is the record's best song -- and even this had been done better by Bruce himself. It's certainly worthwhile for Colosseum fans, but not quite as good as their previous output, and dampened by the inclusion of "The Time Machine," which is nothing more than a live Jon Hiseman drum solo. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide