Album of the Day #162: SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN - Bee Gees

Artist: Bee Gees

Title: Spirits Having Flown

Label: RSO/Polygram

Year: 1979

Songs: Tragedy/Too Much Heaven/Love You Inside Out/Reaching Out/Spirits (Having Flown)/Search, Find/Stop (Think Again)/Living Together/I'm Satisfied/Until

Written by: Robin, Barry & Maurice Gibb

Produced by: The Bee Gees, Karl Richardson & Albhy Galuten

Thoughts: As their last disco album, Spirits Having Flown kicks off with a dazzling three singles in a row (even more ridiculous is the fact that they are all number ones). All of them are pretty great tracks ("Tragedy" being the best, of course). The gentle ballad "Reaching Out" and the reggae-tinged, laid back "Spirits (Having Flown)" round out the first side. Both songs are pretty good, but like most albums that have all the singles on one side, you almost hope that the second side lets you down.

"Search, Find" is actually a good opening for the second side, but to me feels a little bit close to "Tragedy". At least it allows Robin to go a little berserk with drawing out the "i" in "find". "Stop (Think Again)" is like this little lazy, slow moving ballad and it's kind of a sleeper. "Living Together" is a snazzy little rocker, providing for some cool vocal interplay between Robin and Barry. "I'm Satisfied" feels like the guys sat around and said "Well, we got the Chicago Horns, so we might as well give them a showcase", which is all the song really is. "Until" is really disappointing, since it just feels kind of ridiculous. I don't know what they were going for, but I think they missed it on that one. Good vocal, but that's about it.

I also have to give a good pat on the back to the Bee Gees' band. Drummer Dennis Bryon does a fantastic job throughout the album and keyboardist Blue Weaver has some nifty disco synth parts. Alan Kendall, though, is like an invisible guitarist, at least until "Living Together".

So, I found it to be a good record. It's not entirely dominated by disco, so I think it still holds up well today, but it's probably not one of their best records.