By 1974 Traffic got jazzy. Their lineup was then composed of singer Steve Winwood on guitar and keyboards, drummer Jim Capaldi on keyboards and vocals, Rosko Gee on bass and Chris Wood playing saxophone and flute. “Something New” starts off with the rootsy boogie of a mellow pub-rocker before the band blows through the tops with confident improvisation along with Winwood taking a similar approach to a noticeably looser phrasing style. Chris Blackwell’s production gives When the Eagle Flies an overall warm tone without sacrificing any of the crisp fidelity, allowing for special moments to sound more pronounced — like Winwood’s Mellotron strings or Capaldi’s Moog on the sprawling “Dream Gerrard,” a semi-epic that jams along whimsically while Winwood muses on French poet Gérard de Nerval's theories about the symbiosis that thrives between reality and dreams. The slow and stony “Memories of a Rock ‘n Rolla” touches on the more endearing subject matter of reflecting on a life forged in the tumultuous fires and cooling lakes of rock ‘n’ roll.