NIGHTINGALES & BOMBERS

I was a fan back in my "hard rock days". The tracks that most appealed to me then - the Springsteen cover, Spirits in the Night, and Joan Armatrading's Visionary Mountain - are amongst my least favourite today, the latter reminding me of Uriah Heep (not that that's bad, just saying).

Track two, Countdown, is a fun hard rock instrumental with spirited soling and accompaniment that reminds me a little of Deep Purple at times.

Time is Right starts out with a tasty 10/8 rhythm leading to a vocal melody that appears to be deliberately based on the Max Roach 5tet's Driva Man (in 5/4). I only realised this decades later thanks to a recent jazz phase and YouTube. The middle instrumental section is inventive and good listening.

Crossfade has good solos from Manfred M and Mick Rogers and when the latter pulls out the wa-wa pedal you could just about imagine that you were listening to one of Zappa's Hot Rats jams.

The title track sounds as if influenced by RTF and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Great atmosphere early on and then the song explodes with Manfred and Mick catching fire (so to speak). Love it. It's fun to think of Chris Slade playing these nerdy odd meters and fusion-y prog, given his later long-term career as Phil Rudd's replacement with ACDC.

Fat Nelly. After a somewhat cringeworthy intro, the song moves into a pleasing riff followed by more spirited soloing.

As Above, So Below - atmospheric, from the keys solo to the jagged RnR riff fading out to the recording from which the album took its title.

4 stars, although I confess nostalgia.