DOWN TO EARTH

Nektar's fifth album represents something a transition for the band. Although it is another concept album (based on a circus theme), the album consists of nine separate tracks. There are no extended epics or side long numbers, indeed the longest track clocks in at just over 6 minutes.

The other immediately apparent difference is the addition of a brass section, a female backing vocalist (PP Arnold whose backing band become the Nice) and a "choir". The brass section provide a really meaty basis on which tracks such as "Nelly the elephant" and "Fidgety queen" are built. The sound of such songs is noticeably different, this being akin to a cross between King Crimson's "Schizoid man" and a Chicago Transit Authority blast of jazz rock.

The opening "Astral man" has a deceptively simple descending funky blues rhythm. Robert Calvert provides the "Ringmaster" voice on this and a handful of other tracks, his album credit saying that he appears courtesy of "Inter-city rail". "Early morning clown" is one of Nektar's all too rare atmospheric ballads, while the following "That's life" is a more prosaic piece of 70's rock.

"Oh Willy" is a rather ordinary up tempo rock song, while "Little boy" is a soft acoustic pop ballad featuring some fine backing vocals by PP Arnold. Arnold then duet's on the sensitively constructed "Show me the way", a prog epic in under 6 minutes.

The fact that the tracks are unrelated, and that the concept is portrayed through individual portraits rather than a continuous story tends to mean that the album does not flow in the way to which we have become accustomed with Nektar. Each individual track is complete in itself and stands alone as such. To some extent this that the album does not feel progressive in the way of "Remember the future" or "Journey to the centre of the eye". The music is an eclectic mix of the inspired and the functional but dull, making the album as a whole a bit of a mixed bag. While it is always enjoyable, I would recommend any of the first four albums before "Down to earth".

The sleeve illustration is a rather uninspired portrait of the rear end of a bus, with the band dressed as circus performers. The inner sleeve however has a wonderful gatefold photo of what appears to be the band and their families in full circus dress in a big top tent.

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