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This album should have been the big breakthrough disc for the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver, chock-full of catchy adult pop songs like the fantastic leadoff single, "(I Don't Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway," followed by what became a minor hit for Rod Stewart, the second track, "Sailing." With Peter Noone also covering "You Got Me Anyway," the band had the attention of some very musical people but that didn't keep this truly remarkable album from staying off the radar screen of the record-buying public. Steve Winwood and John "Rabbit" Bundrick are thanked on the back, along with others, but there's no mention if they are playing on this really superb record -- it sure sounds like they are with more than a few hints of Traffic and Free finding their way between the grooves. This original rendition of "Sailing" is more primitive than Rod Stewart's near-gospel approach, and the lonely drumbeat adds a mood that reflects the classic cover art of a small rescue craft defying the gods of the sea. "Real Love" sounds like a Traffic outtake, and with Muff Winwood handling the production chores as he did with Dream Kid, the follow-up album, this intriguing disc gives the world ten more portions of Quiver and the Sutherland Brothers' interesting blend of music. Lifeboat is a record that cries to be released on a compact disc with Dream Kid, though a CD booklet would hardly do justice to the cover painting, "Pride of Our Isles" by Bernard Gribble, on loan by "kind permission of Royal National Lifeboat Institute." The picture of hopelessness is worth a thousand words, and while "Real Love" closes out side one with a great hook, and "Have You Had a Vision" and the title track show depth and integrity on side two, it's the first song on the album, "You Got Me Anyway," that brings this effort out of the realm of very good projects up to the level of classic. All Music Guide has this album listed as 1972 with four different tracks, so it may have been re-released. The original lineup noted by AMG has "A Lady Like You," "Lifeboat," "Where Do We Go Wrong," "Ireland," "All I Got Is You," "Space Hymn," "Change the Wind," "Sailing," "Love Is My Religion," and "Real Love." This review is for the 1973 disc, which has "You Got Me Anyway," "Have You Had a Vision," "Not Fade Away," and "Rock and Roll Show" in place of "Ireland," "Love Is My Religion," "A Lady Like You," and "All I Got Is You." ~ Joe Viglione
