It’s fair to say that I Looked Up appeared when the bands discography was starting to be a little uneven & mixed it’s in quality( after a slew of classic releases such as The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter  & Wee Tam and the Big Huge).  The band pervious release 1969’s Changing Horses, was a very mixed bag- it saw the band moving away from their more quirky & drug tinged route, towards the use of more electric instrumentation & ‘formal’ song composition. I looked Up continued this trend in the bands sound, but it did seem to manage to recapture some of the bands original & creative spirit along the way, and while it’s far from a perfect record it’s a lot better than much of what the band released in the late 70’s before they finally split up for good.

The album opens "Black Jack Davey"-a rather fine & up-beat version of a traditional Scottish folk song. But really the main highlights here are the two longer songs, which see each of the bands key-minds/ songwriters creating some of their best work. First of these is track number three which was entitled  ‘Pictures In The Mirror’, and was a Robin Williamson song. The tracks opens with a dramatic interweaving of dulcimer & tight/ intricate acoustic guitar- but fairly soon Williamson wavering & distinctive vocals come in, as the band build-in violin, piano & organ elements- creating a track that mixes together elements of world music hints( simmering Spanish/ slight eastern shimmers) onto wonky & tripped-out mixers of almost discordant paino runs & echoed vocals , through to showy/show-time piano runs, & a rising 'n' tuneful  joint male/ female chorus. The whole thing just managing to  stay together in it’s ISB wonderful-ness.

The second epic track comes in the form of track number five, which is entitled “When You Find Out Who You Are”- this is a Mike Heron composition, but get another lead vocal from Williamson.  I guess you'd say this track is a less experimental than ‘Pictures..’ though it nicely twists & turns along it’s way- moving from up-beat piano & acoustic guitar singer/songwriter settings, through  to joint wavering male & female vocal reputations of the tracks title, onto groovy bass/ guitar break-downs.

The remaining three tracks have their moments too; though at times it does feel like the band are just going through their paces. But to be fair this album  did appeared in the same year as the bands  crazed yet often creative double album U- so you can forgive this to a certain extent.

It’s been about seven or so years since this album last received a CD reissue, and that was as a fairly limited Japanese pressing- so it’s great to have this album back in wider distribution again. And as ISB albums go this isn’t half bad, and well worth a look if your familiar with their other work, but not aware of this  lessen know album.