Hoyt Axton

Raven's 2007 release Less Than the Song/Life Machine is a straight-up two-fer of Hoyt Axton's first two albums for A&M Records, containing no bonus tracks. Although they were released just a year apart -- Less Than the Song came out in 1973, Life Machine in 1974 -- they're very different records, with the former being a spare, rather haunting slice of singer/songwriter introspection and the latter being a good-time boogie record, highlighted by Axton's big breakthrough hit, "Boney Fingers." Despite their differences in tone, they make for good companion pieces, not just because they date from the same era but, when taken together, they give a fairly good indication of the scope of Axton's talents as a songwriter and a performer (his re-workings of "Maybelline" and "That's All Right" on Life Machine are inventive and fun). This is a good disc but be forewarned: if you already own the 1998 two-disc compilation The A&M Years you already have this material -- in the same running order, no less (both discs, after all, merely feature the two albums paired up as a two-fer) -- as the entire first disc of that set. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide