Whereas "Parachute" had been greatly inspired by the Beatles, "Freeway Madness" is much more a progressive 1970's album - a change they persecuted with the next two albums "Silk Torpedo" and "Savage Eye"

The album sets off quietly with "Love is Good". With "Havana Bound" they enter the main-stream hard-rocking sound of the seventies. Both opening tracks have been added in fine live performances as bonus-tracks.

Peter Tolson's autobiographical "Peter" is a great acoustic song, which has been put together with the equally strong "Rip Off Train".

The May/Waller ballad "Over the Moon" is for me the outstanding track; fine melody and great vocals.

Second half of the album has its highlight in the uplifting "Country Road" .

The four live-tracks are great additions to a solid album.

A prog rocker should have.
Yep, the moments of impressive skills here are too many to be neglected. A well produced rock album ranging from hard to soft. Maybe i choose song #1 as the favourite. The young guitarist Peter Tolsen (b.51) was indeed a gifted player with a clear tonal range, steady bending and a solid blues rock bottom with
musicality.
(The car seen on the album was actually David Gilmour's car! (guitarist of Pink Floyd) ).

Freeway Madness ****
Yes this is not the Pretty Things best album. Yes It is not unlike other albums of its time. But This is one of the bands key pieces that shows how after spending about a year in the next studio from the Beatles that the band had absorbed their influences and perhaps had more successfully than any other band of this era combined the biting style of the Stones with the vocazl harmonic stylizations of the Beatles. At least one side of this album is great as a whole. The other side gets a little too much out there which is why it is not a *****. This is a band that has a catalog of 30 albums which are for the mostpart great albums. Not a stinker in the batch. Freeway Madness certainly is a fine moment!

freeway madness
The Pretty Things in 1972.... well if you're a fan of the band you know they have a tendency to change stylistically quite a bit. This album finds itself in the exile on mainstreet/thin lizzy/faces category. This is a good thing. Different for them of course but i guess it makes sense considering when it was put out. If you thought they were done after SF Sorrow, you were wrong...although its not the best....YOU NEED MORE PRETTY THINGS RECORDS MAN. buy it.