ANDROMEDA GIRL

The later E&F album is not for everyone. The music is smooth, gentle and even pop. But this is far from the old art rock of olden days! Anyway, the LP is not that bad. Jerney is still great as a singer and songs are crafted skillfully. The opener, Dream, is the evident hit here, with its strong piano riff and great chorus line. The main track lingers a bit, but still has its moments.

The twelve minute title track is an excellent piece of progressive. The remainder is dull pop and out-of- time disco (even for 1981, when the album was made). On the plus side, their previous album (1979's "Reality Fills Fantasy") was almost 100% disco, so this could be seen as a modest return to form (although alas, not the form shown on the stunning "Song Of The Marching Children" and "Atlantis").

We'll, what shall I say. I bought the album back in 81. It was not a great success in those days. Contrary to its predecessor 'Reality fills Fantasy' which was a come-back of the band. Nevertheless I bought it and was pleasantly surprised by the opening number 'Andromeda Girl' of 12 minutes real sympho prog. But the other 30 minutes is pop-music only with sympho undertones. Not unpleasant but certainly not sparkling. Too bad. One can encounter influences from studio bosses. Sell, sell, sell as long as this band is hot.

If you come across this album, buy it if it's low priced. If not, skip it. Certainly don't download it. Singer Jerney Kaagman is president of 'Brein' which is a Dutch organization fighting illegal practices on music rights.

Stars, mmm.. yes, 'Not-bad, but non-essential'. So three stars, but actaully 2.5

By the time this album was released, I saw the cassette version at some stalls in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Whenever I wanted to buy this album, my friend told me not to buy it - because, according to him, it's not a good album. But .. finally I purchased it. It's not a bad album at all but it tends to make you bored because it's much on poppy stuffs than prog. The band seems to add some flavours of "prog" elements in here but they do not seem so intense. The result is a mediocre album. Take a positive angle about this album: it's an upbeat music that can be a good companion for you while riding a bicycle around the park. It's true .. the music is quite uplifting even though not that rocking.

I tend to classify this album under collector's item because if you are not really keen with the band, I don't think you will be interested to own it.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Jerney is fully installed in her "Barbie" role now. The front cover reminds me the one of the Donna Summer albums (but at least she was good in her genre).

Actually, if you except the title track, there is absolutely nothing worth mentioning in here. But don't expect too much from it either. Twelve long minutes, with here and there some nice short breaks. But this remains a disco-ish song.

I' m afraid that I have no trivia for you in this review (like for their previous album). To write exclusively about the "music" featured here is a real difficult exercise. This is definitely not the music I like, even if some disco sounds are bearable to me : Chic, Ross, Summer (of course). But I'm talking about a very few.

This album wll combine disco aswall as reggae ("Tell Me Why"). Reggae had invaded Europe in '76 or so and surfed the wave till the early eighties. No wonder that a band such as the reconverted "Earth & Fire" was keen on playing reggae-ish music. But it is totally out of purpose. Not the talent to do so any longer. I mean writng good reggae disco or reggae material.

I am really sorry to rate for the third time an "Earth & Fire" album with one star, but I can't honestly not think of a better rating. This album has nothing to do with prog of course; but overall, the song writing is incredibly poor and boring. Almost from start to finish (well, maybe that the closing number is a bit better, especially the instrumental intro part).

2.5 really

Andromed Girl comes on market in 1981 and is a totaly a pop album , but again not bad, really. The synthesizers, the plastic keybords conquer all pieces from this album, the digital atmosphere of pop music from early '80's is here. After Gates to infinity, a new member arrives in Earth nad fire team, no one then an ex Focus musician - Bert Ruiter - the bass player, who was and is married with Jerney Kaagman for more then 30 years, he gives another dimension to bands sound, maybe sometimes the best member of the band.. So, musicaly speaking what we have here, besides the pop arrangemenst , is a piece of 12 , the title track, I have to say that this strack is excellent, the voice of Jerney Kaagman is top notch, but aswell the arrangements are very good, quite symphonic, with string arrangements and all the ingredients to be a good piece, the keybords and guitars, all are perfect here, nice surprise, definetly the highest point of the album, and one of their better pieces from entire career that is for sure. I've always liked the voice of Jerney Kaagman - she has a smooth roughness in her voice, but very good fits perfect in this kind of music, even in the more pop one is ok. So another ok album, not a very good one, but has some moments s worth to be listened, not the best album ever released in that period, but not the worst for sure.2.5 , that means has some good moments in places, even is more pop then prog album, but again not their worst, I remain to Gates to nfinity to be the most irritated album they ever done so far.

Yeah, I know... look at that album cover. Unfortunate perhaps, and I did cringe a little when I first put it on, especially with the electronic drum sound and Jerney Kaagman's voice sounding a little more robotic and detached than it has in the past. If the prior album, "Reality Fills Fantasy" was their slick L.A. soft rock album, then this one is their new wave album. Can't really blame them for trying to keep up with the times - just because it's not cool now doesn't mean it never was.

And while I concede this album does have a few disposable tracks, it's also got some real winners that rank among my favorite Earth and Fire tracks. The opening song, "Dream", has a deceptively complex melodic line, a neat piano theme (sounds like a real piano, anyway) between the verses, and a well-executed vocal by Kaagman. It's pure pop, but you can tell these guys still haven't lost their prog chops. "Singer in the Rain" has a very predictable synth riff underpinning it, but undergoes a beautiful transformation in the chorus that still surprises me. "What More Could You Desire" is an admittedly pretty funny synthesized "tough rocker", but dang, it's not bad at all.

Then there's the title track, "Andromeda Girl". At 11 minutes long, it's often seen as the "last remaining gasp" of prog from a decent prog band who took a long painful fall. Which I think is very unfair. I really don't think they were ever a prog band per se. From the start they were a pop band, and an excellent one at that, as evidenced by their stunning series of singles released in the 1970s. This pop band tried on some prog for size, wore that hat for a while, decided to get a little funky, then dabbled in disco and Europop... all perfectly valid avenues for a 1970s band to take. But because (outside of Holland, anyway) they're mainly known as a prog band for the 2-3 albums they made in that vein, everything else that isn't in that style is written off as if the band stopped caring and just decided to sell out. Not so! They deserve more respect than that. Accept them for what they are: a talented Dutch pop band with ambition and a willingness to embrace contemporary styles.

Anyhoo, back to the title track. Have you ever heard of Flash and the Pan? How about Sparks? This lengthy two-part epic reminds me of those bands -- stiff, quirky, synthesized art rock. Beginning as a fully orchestrated number, with Jerney putting in one of her sweetest vocals ever (in stark contrast to the more new wavey sound of the rest of the album), this is baroque orchestrated pop that I just love. The second 2/3 of the song introduces a fast tempo and a little less melodic interest, but don't let anyone tell you it's disco. I swear, you could put this back to back with a "cool" Sparks or Flash and the Pan song and no one would be the wiser. Excellent track.

The remaining tracks aren't much to scream about, but this album with the unfortunate cover has enough good-to-great songs to warrant an easy 3 out of 5.

My Goodness! Earth And Fire at the late 70´s and the beginning of the 80´s seemed to be completely lost and always one step behind the latest fashion. If they were trying very hard to catch up with the times they failed miserably. Actually I should not even say "they" because from the cover to the very last note played here, Andromeda Gril does not sound anything like a group efford, and yes a simple pop solo album done by Jerney Kaagman . And the worst part of it is the fact that now her extraordinaire voice is mostly eletronic treated, losing even the very charm of her: her warm, beautful and clean delivering. Now she sounds like just any other singer at the time. A real shame.

The bass player here (like in 1979´s Reality Fills Fantasy), is one Bert Ruiter. I spent a long time wondering if he was the same one who played on several Focus classic records. I found out later that he was, but don´t expect any improvement over the sound here because of that. In fact, it could be anyone. All the record is very well done professionally, well perfomed and with a near perfect production (for the time) but like so many other commercial records there is no conviction and no personality, like a work of faceless studio musicians. The sole exception is the title track: this 12 minute epic has great parts on it, even prog parts and is by far the best thing on the entire LP. It´s the only track that reminds me of how good Earth And Fire once was, even at their most pop-ish moments. And it´s also the main reason why I didn´t give this CD a one star rating. But title track aside, there is little more to enjoy here. Love Is An Ocean has a good melody line, with a brief guitar solo that´s quite nice. A few good moments can be found on some parts also, but there are also very embarassing moments like the outdated even for the time discotheque of Tell Me Why and Shore To Shore.

Conclusion: even if the music here is not totally crap (and includes at least one very good song), the eletronic treatment of Kaagman´s voice is a sin beyond redemption. This album is definitly for collectors and (hardcore) fans only. 2 stars