MUSIC MAGIC

Well it is certainly not the same band that put out albums such as No Mystery and Light As A Feather during the early part of the decade, Al Do Meola and Lenny White have now gone, and Return To Forever regroup after Romantic Warrior with a horn section and er... Gayle Moran. Now, I have no real issue with Return To Forever resorting to the use of lyricsfor the sake of doing something different perhaps, but having Moran singing them is the real sticking point. She just does not fit and should be nowhere near an act of this calibre and genre. Moran writing those lyrics is probably equally a bad trip. She should be nowhere near a pen and paper. With the previous album, Romantic Warrior, it was easy to see that the band were following a formula and were perhaps finding it difficult to progress without change, hence the use extra horns and reeds plus the ill wised use of Gayle Moran, she had appeared on a Mahavishnu Orchestra album at a low point for McLaughlin's band, but then, anything post Birds Of Fire Mahavishnu Orchestra is rather low, but Moran's appearence on an album is particularily low. Musically the album Musicmagic is alright, lacking the bite of guitar for sure,some heady fusion workouts, but definitely heading toward the muzak windonw of things. But I could have gotten over that. Gayle Moran's singing is hideous and very annoying, it interferes with the pattern of what I wanted to hear, and the lyrics are banal and useless. There are moments when the band are heading toward a neat little run but in comes this awful noise to upset the nuance, Corea himslef looks devoid of inspiration, though Clarke looks to be coming of age here, Helo Again" is great hooks. Musicmagic is more traigic than magic. A fusion lover should really hate it, there is nothing here to love, but maybe a little to like.