ONE WORLD

After a relative lull in the previous 2 albums, JOHN MARTYN desperately needed a break, and travelled to Jamaica for inspiration in the form of a BURNING SPEAR. This influential infusion rewarded him and his fans with a second career peak, as well as a continuation of his once an album stylistic shift, here to a variation of world music that fits with its contemporaries like a puzzle piece that you clipped or appended to in order to finish first. It's a little bit reggae, a little bit krautrock (ok, like CAN was doing at the time), a little bit jazz and blues (PASSPORT, TRAFFIC via STEVIE WINWOOD), and yeah, a little bit country (kinda kiddin). Almost all is good or great though, in particular the sensuous title cut, the little bit middle eastern "Smiling Stranger", the popular "Couldn't Love you More", beating JOE COCKER at his own game, and the ambient cunning of the epilogue, "Small Hours". Even "Dancing" is worthwhile - I mean don't hate on him given this is 1977 and if you had a pulse you needed to hit the planks - for being a rare joyous number from this often overly serious fellow. Highly recommended to non purists of any stripe, and aren't we all?