Max
	Produced by Robert John Lange and The Rumour
	Released on July 1977
	US CHART POSITION #124
	Find it at GEMM
SRM-1-1174 cover [high resolution photo]

Y es, this is Graham Parker’s backing band intact and on their own. But these lads were a hot topic of discussion before any of that, in bands called Brinsley Schwarz and Ducks Deluxe. The members of The Rumour were at the core of a lively pub rock movement that included Parker, Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. So if you followed those artists, you’d already heard The Rumour. With the release of Max (the name is a play on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, see Nick Lowe’s Bowi for more of the same), it seemed like The Rumour were ready to shake their label as perennial bridesmaids. Or not. The truth is, “core” is right; there’s far more tastier fruit around them (Lowe, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Joe Jackson) and you’d have to run out of it before you bit down this deep for something to eat. Not that Max is a bad record, but if you’re expecting the band to grab for the brass ring be prepared to watch them go around in circles. The opening “Mess With Love” (written by Nick Lowe, who later did a likeable version as “Mess Around With Love”) is all right, but Dave Edmunds did so much more with Lowe’s material. “Airplane Tonight” (which sounds uncannily like The Band) and the reggae-ish “Hard Enough To Show” are winners, “I’m So Glad” is pretty too, but the rest of Max is generic R&B, complete with the horns, high energy and humble pipes you’ve heard a hundred times before from bands like J. Geils, Huey Lewis and The News, etc. If pop is your passion, follow Gomm With The Wind, English Boys/Working Girls, Adventure Time or any other good pop album from people who never got The Rumour’s press. True, the next two albums have their moments, but if you really want to hear The Rumour, stick to Parker.

SRM-1-1174 back cover	SRM-1-1174 company sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. MESS WITH LOVE    (Nick Lowe)    3:49
2. HARD ENOUGH TO SHOW    (Andrew Bodnar/The Rumour)    4:07
3. DO NOTHING 'TILL YOU HEAR FROM ME    (Bob Russell/Duke Ellington)    3:26
4. AIRPLANE TONIGHT    (Martin Belmont/Sean Tyla)    4:13
5. LOOKING AFTER NO. 1    (Martin Belmont/The Rumour)    2:47
6. I WANNA MAKE HER LOVE ME    (Henry Cosby/Lula Hardaway/Sylvia Moy/Stevie Wonder)    3:08
7. I'M SO GLAD    (Bob Andrews/The Rumour)    3:15
8. FACE TO FACE    (Martin Belmont/The Rumour)    3:59
9. THIS TOWN    (Bob Andrews/The Rumour)    2:44
10. SOMETHIN'S GOIN' ON    (Martin Belmont/The Rumour)    3:14

CREDITS

BOB ANDREWS --
MARTIN BELMONT --
ANDREW BODNAR --
STEPHEN GOULDING --
BRINSLEY SCHWARZ --
Albie Donnelly -- tenor sax
Danny Ellis -- trombone
Dick Hanson -- trumpet
Bob Robertson -- alto sax
The Rumour -- mixing
Ted Sharpe -- engineer
Tim Friese-Greene -- mixing engineer
Pete Kodrick -- front cover photograph
Keith Morris -- back cover photograph

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