MANN ALIVE

I must admit when purchasing this album from the record store, I was looking very much forward to getting home and giving it a blast. The recording is good, but this album lacks more of the early stuff. Once again just like Budapest, it covers more of the Chris Thompson period. There are tracks here that are a delight to hear, but others fall way below par. The worst of these below par tracks I would have to say is non other than track 3, You Angel You. To which I was was all geared up for, being a keyboard player myself, the track opens nicely with the moog, then it dissapears into a totally crap played hammond sortish organ. Why the hell Mr. Mann did not use the moog accompanied by strings as totally confused me here, because it would have turned out a damn site better. Instead what we have here, is something that sounds like the geezer cannot play the track at all, unless done in a studio. Which is ver un professional. I could have done a better job myself with it. This kind of lack of keyboard parts, does not stop just on this track either. It also appears on the classic Father Of Day, Father Of Night. To which mick rogers is left to do most of the work, which is very unlike the studio track from Solar Fire.

Al in all though, the album is a good purchase, especially if your into the more later stuff of MMEB's material. To which I would give 3 and a half stars in reality. I cannot give it 4 stars, simply becasue it is not prog music here, there is far to much of the later material on it.