CADMIUM

Oh, if only this had been released instead of 'Sky5 Live' - or, better still, instead of the ice-cold 'Forthcoming'. While not as strong as Sky1 and Sky2, this album does capture SKY at what they did best: a mixture of uptempo reinterpretations of classic material and some thoughtful original compositions.

Again, though, I am reminded of how important Francis Monkman was to their initial success. Here SKY find themselves resorting to tin-pan alley writers such as Alan Tarney (CLIFF RICHARD'S songwriter) to whip them up some ditties. Surprisingly, Tarney almost comes off (as he did for Cliff in the astonishingly good - for Cliff - 'Stronger' at about the same time). Almost, but not quite. Other tracks on this album are echoes of former glory - and they knew it. Why else call a track 'Son of Hotta'?

Best moments are 'Fayre' and 'A Girl in Winter', while 'Telex from Peru' - a 'Connecting Rooms' clone - is worth a listen. Otherwise there's not much point in trying to track down this hard-to-find disc.