Yardbirds - Yardbirds [Roger the Engineer] (1966), 4/10

Yardbirds are another blues rock band relying on technical guitar work and thematic gimmicks to prop up otherwise unnecessary and uninteresting re-imagining of the blues. This has been accomplished better before and since, making most of the album drearily mundane despite its inconsistency in quality. That being said, the first two tracks are exceptional and grabbing before the rest of the record starts to drag on. Sections of “Lost Woman” and “Over, Under, Sideways, Down” make at least a passing glance worthwhile before the second half of the record proves itself aimless and impotent. While a track like “Jeff’s Boogie” shows off Jeff Beck’s remarkable individual talent, as a blues song it is inane, especially in its place signaling an immediate downward spiral in quality before the end of the album. The record becomes a mess despite its consistency in aim, becoming a series of questionable twists and turns before it ends with perhaps the weakest track of the bunch in “Ever Since the World Began”. Anyone coming simply to hear great guitar work from Jeff Beck or serious fans of blues rock may find substance amidst an otherwise pointless exercise, but for anyone else this is another generic release. There is simply nothing here to help the band stand out among the already overwhelming crowd of British blues rock, making it far from essential and ultimately a poor effort.