NO MYSTERY

Now I'm no fool. I can count by twos and tie my shoes, but I can't for the life of me tell whether or not I like this album any more or less than Where Have I Known You Before. I suppose the introductory statement would have to include some of the phenomenal guitar playing present, especially on the track 'Flight of the Newborn' which is supposed to have been one of the first usages of the shred guitar technique. I'm not too fond of what's become of that particular trick in rock and metal these days, with everyone and his mother's brother's kitchen sink trying to be a third rate Yngwie Malmsteen, but Al really shines here. They've brought in a little funk to even the spread, and when he freaks out you'll swear it was the ghost of Jimi Hendrix coming back to possess an economic white man (or whatever race Al happens to be). In this effect, No Mystery is something a tad different. And as we all know, a little change can go a long way. However, the remaining aspects of the album offer very little in the way of innovation. Whether it's them bringing along a violinist (who isn't that spectacular if you were to ask me) or retreading the old grounds, it's still a series of fantastic performances by folks who assuredly know what the hell they're doing. Question is, is what they're doing overly intriguing? It can be. If you take an album of this nature as background music, it can definitely make you seem smarter and more elitist to the uninitiated. Maybe that's why jazz fusion exists in the first place (wink).

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