DOWN TO EARTH

The melodic approach pursued on the Remember the Future album left a strong footprint on Nektar's musical stance: only they decided to get down to Earth and make their Down toEarth album not digging deeper into the predecessor's symphonic trend but leaning closer to a sort of moderately complex melodic rock. The final result leaves nektar sticking pretty much to the R'n'B-inspired cadences and nurture them with a Caravan-like vibe: this makes the jazzy element bring a fresh dynamics into the band's stylistic evolution, but it also makes them toy with a spectrum that they're not entirely familiar with, so yo ucan tell that most of the compositions are left with arrangements and instrumental ensamblages not totally fulfilled, not bringing enough substance to the final form. So... this is the album that broke the potential bridge between Remember and Recycled (more natural acetate brothers). This is also an ambitious album, a concept-album revolving around the idea of the world as a Universal circus. This explains the overtly playful mood of the opener 'Astral Man' and the pompous announcements by the Master of Ceremonies Bob Calvert. It also explains the plain naivety of 'Oh Willy', so full of Beatlesque psychedelic ornaments, and the theatrical colors of 'Nelly the Elephant'. The album's highlights have to be 'That's Life' and 'Show Me The Way'. I am acquainted with the live renditions that fuse both tracks into a terrific exposure of overblown progressive sounds: these studio versions are not so incendiary but they reflect both tracks' melodic approach pretty well. 'That's Life' includes some Latin-jazz textures in the frantic instrumental sections, leading to cleverly sustained climaxes; 'Show me the Way' is the most Caravanesque song in the album, and not unlike the other aforesaid track, it comprises clever tempo shifts that don't sound too contrasting. 'Fidgety Queen' is a hard rocker, attempting to be as catchy and punchy as 'Cryin' in the Dark' or the 'Let It Grow' portion from Remember the Future: this time the studio version does fall noticeably short in comparison to the more substantial live versions. Tracks 3 and 7 are nothing special, really: I like to imagine that 'Early Morning Clown' had the potential of a memorable prog power ballad, but what I get is a vulgar slow song, that's all. And that's all I have left to say about this Nektar album, a good one all things considered, but a downslide when you regard the albums that preceded it and succeded it, respectively. Maybe this band went too down-to-Earth... anyway, let me finish this review by praising 'That's Life' and 'Show Me the Way' again.