SAW DELIGHT

Context is everything. If Saw Delight had been released by anybody besides Can, it might be cited as an essential touchstone in the Krautrock canon. But being as it is a product of Can, and arriving in the wake of the avowed classics Tago Mago and Future Days, it gets unfairly maligned as inconsequential, underpar, or "Can on autopilot".

Let's remember, Can on autopilot is miles ahead of most bands on full-force creative power. The African rhythms that percolate throughout this album lay the foundation for a song cycle that marries the ancient and the modern with a deftness and fluidity that most other artists still haven't mastered nearly 30 years on. Sure, closing track "Fly By Night" is unnecessarily poppy and melodic, but everything preceding it rumbles in an authoritative, shamanic groove that is classic Can.

My prognosis: This album is a lot better than you've been led to believe. While it doesn't get the same respect as its bretheren, it nonetheless is a worthy installment in the Can discography that yields many rewards for the listener, unapologetically, on its own terms.