🎧Have You Heard? LAKE [1976]🎧

While researching my favorite songs from 1977, I discovered several artists, albums, and songs from that year that were completely new to me and set them aside for further evaluation. One such artist and album shared a name: Lake. After acquiring their first album on CD, the first track I listened to was "Time Bomb" which sounded to me like Supertramp. Then I tried the album opener, "On The Run" which had a little bit of disco sheen on it and the song after it "Sorry To Say" brought to mind a less polished Alan Parsons Project. Continuing on through the other five tracks on the album, I kept hearing the prog rock tendencies sometimes mated with a disco beat and I liked it liked it yes I did though I do want to point out that the album's closing track "Between The Lines" accounts for nearly a third of the entire album's thirty-seven minute running time.

Based in Germany, Lake entered the recording studio in 1975 and released their self-titled debut album the following year across Europe with the cover art pictured above on the left. (Outside of Europe, the album was released in 1977 featuring the artwork on the right.) Lake toured North America, opening for several southern rock acts and even shared bills with Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Their debut album made it to number 92 on Billboard's Top LPs and Tapes chart in 1977 and the single "Time Bomb" spent three weeks on the Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 83. In Record World, the single peaked at number 70 while in Cash Box it peaked at number 88. Several AOR stations added songs from the album to their playlists and to this day listeners of those stations remember Lake fondly. In its list of the Top 100 Songs of 1977, West Virgina station WHAR 1340 aka 13 Rock listed "Time Bomb" as the number 62 song of the year, between Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So In To You" at 61 and Yvonne Elliman's "Love Me" at 63. Not for nothing, but the station's Number One Song of 1977 was exactly the same record that topped my own list.

The advertisement at the top of the page is from Rolling Stone dated August 25, 1977. Does it make you want to listen to the album? Yeah, me neither. The album review below, from the September 27, 1977, issue of Rolling Stone, compares the music of Lake to ABBA, The Hollies, Alan Parsons/Steely Dan and Vanilla Fudge like it's a bad thing which I guess it might have been to critic John Milward's ears.

Lake is not for everyone. I get that but I am glad I found them and this album and look forward to working my way through the rest of their catalog at some point. Let me know what you think in the Comments section down below.