Planes & Never Even Thought, Colin Blunstone, album review: Criminally underrated rocker is on top form

Blunstone almost caresses his lyrics

Planes & Never Even Thought

Colin Blunstone has one of the most distinctive and criminally underrated voices in rock music. As lead singer with the Zombies his strong, clear yet wistful vocals took the group into the major league with such enduring and classic hits as “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season”.

His solo career, successful enough with “Say You Don’t Mind” and “I Don’t Believe in Miracles”, should have made him into a mega star. Instead, albums such as these two, both recorded for Elton John’s Rocket Records in the mid-1970s, have been overlooked. Indeed, this is the first time “Planes” (from 1976) and “Never Even Thought” (1978) have been reissued, which is a shame as they show Blunstone at the top of his vocal form.

The Elton John/Bernie Taupin-penned title song of the first album, for instance, is a beautiful and heartfelt ballad that showcases Blunstone’s ability to almost caress the lyrics without losing any of the song’s power. His own songwriting abilities are obvious, too, on the acoustic and jazzy “Dancing in the Dark” or the plaintive but beguiling “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, all sympathetically produced by Gus Dudgeon. There’s also a welcome nod to past successes with Blunstone revisiting the “Odessey and Oracle” track “(Care of) Cell 44”.

Those songwriting skills are even more to the fore on “Never Even Thought” where he co-wote all but two of the nine tracks. Here, it’s the gentle and enchanting “Who’s That Knocking?” and the lyrical and pensive “Photograph” that stand out. “I have a photograph of you, a memory or two lasting forever,” he sings in his inimitable breathy but captivating style. It’s a quality also evident on the Murray Head-penned title track where his evocative vocals float above the song’s almost baroque rock stylings.

He also had an ear for a good song, such as the album’s final track “Do Magnolia Do” originally recorded and written by Jackson Browne’s younger brother Severin, which shows off Blunstone’s inate ability to make someone else’s song his own with a vocal that builds to a storming crescendo.

“Colin Blunstone, a man with the talent it takes to outlive trends,” ran the blurb of a contemporary ad for the “Never Even Thought” album. Now, almost 40 years on, with Blunstone and Rod Argent touring with a reborn Zombies (including an impressive set at Glastonbury) , it’s good to see to see how prophetic those words were.