Formed by former Zombies frontman Rod Argent (and named after himself), Argent is one of those bands who carved its niche in rock history with a tiny handful of hits. Two of those songs, “Time Of The Season” and “Hold Your Head Up”, are common reference points for fans and musicians on the modern-day power pop scene. The latter of those two is a true pop anthem, and that song alone is worth the price of the entire CD (which I suppose is easy enough for me to say, since it’s really a bit of a budget release). Argent’s music is heavy on the electric organ fetish that a lot of early 1970s power pop seemed to have, as well as many a funky bass line. Sometimes that works, and other times it doesn’t. I love “Hold Your Head Up”, and even though I’ve heard “Time Of The Season” so many times that I’m positively sick of it, I’ll give it points for being an excellent arrangement and decent song. I don’t remember “Tragedy” getting a great deal of airplay, but it’s probably my favorite of the lesser-known songs in the collection.
The Argent Anthology is a nice collection, but it points up a couple of things: sometimes the one- or two-hit wonders happen because the band in question is a one-sound wonder. But few pull that off as well as Rod Argent and company did.
- Hold Your Head Up (6:17)
- Liar (3:14)
- Pleasure (4:54)
- God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You (6:45)
- It’s Only Money Part I (4:06)
- Thunder And Lightning (5:09)
- Tragedy (4:48)
- Time Of The Season (6:37)
Released by: Epic
Release date: 1976
Total running time: 41:50