MAN IN THE MOON

Trying to fit into the `80s Nektar can sound briefly like everyone from Camel, Eloy and even Canadian rockers Rush here. But then again, many prog-rock dinosaurs were beginning to sound like a lot of things not imagined in the early seventies by this time.

The Nektar die hard can seek some solace in the fact that two of the founder members Roye Albright and Allan Freeman are still here and are backed up by two competent newcomers with the band returning after a 3 year hiatus. But despite some good sound production, there are only three or four tracks to be found here that have some redeeming qualities as far as the fan of the Nektar freakouts of the early seventies is concerned and even these come in small doses. The biggest letdown is the title track which appears at the conclusion of the record. Not because it`s the worst track on the album but because it`s epic potential is not realised. It`s spacey synth and guitar work could have been developed extensively, turning it into an extended track occupying an entire side of the record thus dispensing with all of the second rate tracks which could have easily be mistaken for REO Speedwagon songs, most notably the nauseating opening track Too Young To Die. There are, nonetheless, some brief moments of false hope which occur on tracks like Torraine,We, Far Away and You`re Alone but fail to captivate as a whole. Two additional mediocre tracks appear on the 2002 CD re-issue prolonging the agony even further and explain why they weren`t included on the original vinyl in the first place. The otherwise magnificent spacey cover art also misleads one into thinking that this might be another concept album along the lines of 1975s Recycled when in effect all we get for the most part is an album of songs built around themes of lost love and other shlock.

An unmitigated catastrophe of unfocussed confusion sailing in the stormy seas of change. Arguably the band`s worst effort. A real shame.