NOW IS THE HAPPIEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE

Daevid Allen's followup to Good Morning! is a much less ambitious affair. Dispensing with the services of the Gong guest stars and the unique sound of Euterpe from the previous album, the album is more acoustic focused, and suffers from being weighed down with muddled, substandard material. I suspect many listeners will switch off at Tally & Orlando Meet The Cockpot Pixie, an overlong and tedious track in which (to a repetitive and dull musical backing) Allen tries to explain the story of Radio Gnome Invisible to his son Orlando (who was but a small child at the time this came out). The overall impression given is of listening in to a touching family moment which didn't really need to be shared with the wider world.

The rest of the album sees Allen grinding on with his usual lyrical preoccupations with New Age spirituality and trying to convince people to be less cruel to each other, only the wit of the Gong days and the wisdom of the better lyrics on Good Morning! (such as Wise Man In Your Heart) appear absent. And with the musical backing as limp as it is, there's very little reason left to bother with this one.