SOLAR FIRE

Where exactly does MMEB fall in the universe of music? Well, let's assume prog rock without loss of generality. Okay then. But why? Maybe a combination of several things.

Perhaps it involves Manfred Mann's keyboard work. Throughout the album, Mann really gives progsters a hearty meal of Moog synths with a little Hammond on the side. Better yet, there are plenty of solos coming from those keys.

Somehow, it could be the songs themselves. Many look like they deal with a planetary theme, or even grander, a heavenly body theme. There are a few weird time sigs thrown on board for good measure (e.g. the seven time in the title track), and it seems like a few genres are covered from the spacey ''Father of Day...'', the peppy ''Pluto, the Dog'', the quick ''Mercury'' to the boogie ending of ''Earth, the Circle Part 1''.

It's an album I enjoy heartily. It's complex enough to satisfy my cerebral desires, but it's simple enough for me to give repeated listenings. All solos are kept to a controllable level, but still entertaining nevertheless. Only the opening number and ''Saturn'' are numbers I feel uncomfortable with; ''Father of Day...'' goes on too long and ''Saturn'' is just too slow.

Not exactly an explosion, but it's one powerful piece of rock-prog.

On a random note, I happen to own the American release of the album which has ''Joybringer'' instead of ''Earth, the Circle Part 2''. ''Joybringer'' is a nice little nonoffensive poppier tune that is one of the stronger songs on the album.