ONLY THE DANCER

This third album is easily NDW's most deceiving even if the gatefold held some promises. Down to a quartet, but still lead by drummer/singer Seyffer, the album is mostly straight ahead rock, and if well executed, it can only deceived after their previous two albums even if Rolf Henning is back on guitar. It was recorded in England and boasted shorter tracks (except for the closing track), and has the curiosity of hosting VdGG's Dave Jackson on most tracks, Grobschnitt's Lupo (for the great humoresque interventions on the opening track) but Seyffer had left the drums/percussions (to an Indian) and much of his zaniness, even if he still dominates in the songwriting department.

Some tracks still hold quite a bit of interest, such as the opening Long Distance Line with its mid-section being drastically different than the verse-chorus parts) and the closing track , the lengthy Moments (where the group finally abandons a bit the classic song structure), but on the whole most of them are very average, such as the title track (with Audience/Gnidrolog vocals), Not My Fault, Hovercraft Queen and The Way I'm Living. One of the fun things is you recognize clearly Jackson's style of sax playing even if his parts are much more conventional (and much less electronically-trafficked) than in his Generator. Generally, the second side is better than the first but this is marginal.

But the few plusses of this album hardly offset the minuses and the vast majority of average. Best avoided unless you have all their other albums. While two stars may appear harsh (but outside the opening and closing tracks.) , compared to NDW's other albums, it really is not!!