Creation, Felix Pappalardi - Creation with Felix Pappalardi (1976)

After the reunion of Mountain that produced the 1974 album Avalanche proved short-lived, bassist Felix Pappalardi returned to his job as a record producer, while guitarist Leslie West returned to his solo career, producing 1975's The Great Fatsby and 1976's The Leslie West Band. Here, Pappalardi for the first time fronted his own LP, albeit in the company of the Japanese quartet Creation. Not surprisingly, the music, most of it co-written by Pappalardi and his wife, Gail Collins (who also contributed to Mountain), sounds a lot like the melodic hard rock style of Mountain. Pappalardi had a light tenor voice that was sometimes heard in Mountain when the singing wasn't done by the gruff-voiced West, and it is better on the ballads; on the rockers, West is missed. Lead guitarist Kazuo "Flash" Takeda, who got four co-songwriting credits, made some attempt to ape the penetrating sound of West's guitar, with some success, although he was a smoother, less aggressive player overall. Just as West's then-recent solo albums lacked the quality original songwriting and strong production sound of Mountain's records, this Pappalardi effort lacks West's vocal and instrumental contributions, reminding listeners of what had been lost by the breakup of the group.