INNER WORLDS

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Jazz Rock/Fusion

2.62 | 143 ratings

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milesh

Oh, why did this ever occur? First the Titanic, then the Hindenburg and now THIS album!!

The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire are two of the best albums ever!! This incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, unfortunately, was a total bummer. They long their string and brass sections and said a tearful goodbye to Jean-Luc Ponty (wonderful violinist if I do say so myself). Well, even though, John McLaughlin played some funk on the early 70's Miles Davis albums, Mahavishnu Orchestra just wasn't designed for that genre - and for a good reason.

Narada Michael Walden is a fine producer and session musician but he should just stay behind the drum kit and come nowhere within thirty feet of a microphone. The songs with vocals on this album are some of the worst songs ever written: "In My Life" makes you wish it WAS a cover of the famous Beatles song from Rubber Soul; "River of My Hearts" rocks about as hard as the theme song from Cheers; and "Planetary Citizen" is so awful, words cannot describe it.

The rest is some of the worst jazz-rock-funk fusion ever played (in fact, according to the liner notes, John McLaughlin doesn't even play on two or three of the tracks - SO WHY THE HELL IS IT JUST HIM PICTURED ON THE COVER???). The keyboards sound terrible, John McLaughlin plays his guitar (intentionally) out-of-tune, and the rhythm sections needs to be more ready for a session.

All of this adds up to one of the worst fusion albums ever made. My dad has many albums that John McLaughlin was the leader on, as himself, MO and Shakti (and he was even lucky enough to get Mr. McLaughlin to sign his name on the covers!!), but my dad sold his copy after one listen, the precise reason why this album gets zero stars. Even John McLaughlin himself disowns this album.

| 1/5 | 2005-3-11

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