Quicksilver Messenger Service

Prior to this album\'s release, Quicksilver contributed two fine songs to the soundtrack of the film Revolution. Vocalist Dino Valente\'s subsequent drug bust and incarceration didn\'t prevent them from playing live, but it did delay the completion of their first album. Quicksilver\'s debut was consequently more mature than those of their late-1960s San Francisco Sound brethren--Big Brother, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. Quicksilver\'s first outing offers long instrumental passages and a communal attitude toward vocals and solos. Overall, however, QMS, while enjoyable and historically important, pales next to the band\'s innovative second release, Happy Trails. --James Swift (Amazon)