WE'LL TALK ABOUT IT LATER

Got bored with ELASTIC ROCK and wondering what the fuss is with this Nucleus thing? Then try out WE'LL TALK ABOUT IT LATER, the debut with the amps turned up and a fiercer punch. Here's where Nucleus really cut loose on ''rocking'' without sacrificing any jazz semblances. I feel that guitarist Spedding and drummer Marshall are core to the Nucleus sound almost as much as the horns overhead and Karl Jenkins's writing; here, the guitar and drums really do push this album into that masterpiece status that seems to elude me.

You'll know if you've run into great territory if the opening moments jump out at you and make your eyelids wider. Nucleus waste no time in grabbing the listener's attention with ''Song for the Bearded Lady''; blaring on the opening notes, establishing a memorable riff (sounds like a variant of the ''1916'' motif from the last album), jamming without draining the power bar, throwing a jaunty, off-ball riff that fits well with the song, putting it all together at the end...great stuff. There's a reason why I single out the opener and that's because it sets the tone for the rest of the album as well as making sure the listener is paying attention.

I honestly can't find a track that is the overall low point here. Parts of tracks are weak like the ending of the album that just fizzles out into a drum solo; I like John Marshall's drumming, but it's not the best way to cap an album. Nucleus take the risk of throwing the odd vocal in there; ''1916 (Easter)'' starts out with the familiar theme (if you've heard the first album) but with gritty, angry vocals over it that just works. And ''The Ballad of Joe Pimp'' is entirely sung in a cool-but-not-offish way that adds charm to the track. ''Oasis'' has some tight interplay between the instruments over a great, choppy guitar riff. It reminds me of the title track from ANGHERR SHISSPA (Koenjihyakkei).

It sometimes takes tracks time to make sense. The title track was out of my comprehension for a long time until I really sat down and gave it an honest listen; there's a great climactic buildup in there, a quality of which I'm a sucker for. Add that to some of the grittiest, meanest playing on the album and you have a monster jazz-rocker. The whole album is any one of powerful, gritty, mean or funky except for ''Lullaby for the Lonely Child'', a smoother track that harkens to the debut, but with a warmer feel and more welcome to offset the madness.

If I could use one phrase to describe WE'LL TALK ABOUT IT LATER, ''one, huge, powerful jazz monster'' could sum it up. There's a good reason why this album is highly accoladed on PA, and if you like the jazz as processed by bands like Chicago, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa, or the like, this album is pretty close to a must. The musicians on board are simply mindblowing not just in their playing ability but how well they mesh together to make the songs breathe. Other than a few slip-ups, one of the most brilliantly executed yet amazingly satsifying albums in jazz-rock.