Nice 'n' Greasy completed Atomic Rooster’s journey from dark heavy-prog to bluesy, funky soul-rock. The band’s fifth album, released in 1973, it doubled down on the direction of Made in England, with Chris Farlowe’s soulful voice out front and a new guitarist in the ranks. It’s the least essential of the band’s Seventies albums — but there’s still real groove and a few hidden gems for the patient listener.

The short version

Nice 'n' Greasy (1973) is the fifth studio album by Atomic Rooster, and the last of their original 1970s run. Once more built around founder Vincent Crane, it retained singer Chris Farlowe and drummer Ric Parnell, and introduced young guitarist John Goodsall — credited as ‘Johnny Mandala’ — who would later find fame in the fusion band Brand X. Blues, funk and soul dominate, with only occasional flashes of the band’s old gothic heaviness. In the US it was retitled Atomic Rooster IV.

The revolving door turns again

By now, wholesale line-up changes were simply part of the Atomic Rooster story. Guitarist Steve Bolton had left at the end of 1972, and on Parnell’s recommendation the band brought in nineteen-year-old John Goodsall, who took the stage name Johnny Mandala. Crane, Farlowe and Parnell provided the continuity, and the album was reportedly recorded in something of a hurry. It proved to be the last gasp of the band’s original era: after its release and a final tour, the group fell apart, and Crane would wind Atomic Rooster down in 1975 before reviving it years later.

The sound

If Made in England moved Atomic Rooster toward soul, Nice 'n' Greasy finished the job. This is a bluesy, funky record — imagine Funkadelic and Brian Auger filtered through a prog and hard-rock pedigree — with Farlowe’s rumbling, soulful vocals and Goodsall’s fluid, note-heavy guitar to the fore. Crane and Parnell make a tight rhythmic team, though Crane’s keyboards are noticeably lower in the mix than on earlier albums, surfacing for the odd solo rather than dominating. The old dark magic appears only in flashes, but the grooves are genuine.

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The songs

The album opens with the bluesy chill-out ‘All Across the Country,’ driven by Goodsall’s slow-burn guitar, and its standout is ‘Voodoo in You’ — a slinky, seven-minute swamp-rocker with one of Farlowe’s finest vocals and a genuinely dark, occult feel. ‘Take One Toke’ brings a New Orleans-style funk, while the orchestrated ballad ‘Can’t Find a Reason’ and the instrumental jam ‘Ear in the Snow’ lift the second half. The single ‘Save Me’ is a horn-driven funk remake of ‘Friday the 13th’ from the debut — a curious circling back to where the band began.

Reception and legacy

Nice 'n' Greasy is generally seen as the weakest of Atomic Rooster’s first five albums — a professional but patchy record that completes their shift into mainstream bluesy rock, with the original prog fire largely gone. Reviews were lukewarm, sales were poor, and Dawn Records soon dropped the band. Farlowe, Goodsall and Parnell all left, and after a final 1975 benefit concert Crane disbanded Atomic Rooster, not to revive it until 1980. For die-hard fans, though, the album’s grooves and Farlowe’s voice make it a worthwhile, if minor, footnote.

The verdict

Nice 'n' Greasy is one for committed fans rather than newcomers — start with Death Walks Behind You and work forward, and come to this one last. Taken on its own terms, it’s a decent, groovy blues-soul-rock album with a superb singer and some fine playing, even if it rarely sounds much like the Atomic Rooster of old. Try ‘Voodoo in You,’ ‘Take One Toke’ and ‘Can’t Find a Reason.’ It closed the band’s original chapter, but not the story of its founder: Vincent Crane, the one constant in every Atomic Rooster line-up, died in 1989.

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