OUT OF OUR HANDS

Ouch! Definitely one for completists. Out of Our Hands is reasonably well performed, and the sound's not bad. But the songs are uninspired. If it turned out that this record was assembled from scratch over a short weekend, or that it was recorded strictly as a contractual obligation, I wouldn't be surprised.

It's been claimed, or maybe guessed, that Out of Our Hands is a concept album. If so, I don't get it! There are songs with "king," "pawn," "knight," "queen," and "bishop" in the title, but beyond that, no evident theme.

The closing jam of "Man of Honour (Knight)" is pretty good, as are the intros to "Psychosynch" (i.e., the "Escape" section) and "Manhattan Morning (Christmas '72)." But in general, in every respect, Out of Our Hands is a lesser album than In the Can - - and a much poorer album than the group's debut. Even Peter Banks, the band's driving force, and an excellent guitarist, is unimpressive throughout much of this album.

(P.S. This doesn't enter into my rating of Out of Our Hands at all, but I find it hard to believe that the album cover wasn't considered stupid, even in 1973. Maybe stupid was just more acceptable!)