THE CONFESSIONS OF DR. DREAM AND OTHER STORIES

Moving to Island Records, Kevin Ayers features on this album a dizzying variety of guest artists and a slick, polished sound which I suspect will divide a lot of Ayers listeners. Those who found his earlier material maddeningly sloppy and inconsistent might find the higher production values and more cohesive sound to be a plus; for other listeners, though, Ayers' rough-around-the-edges sloppiness was part of his charm, and the album may come across a little too neat and tidy to scratch the itch that's scratched by, say, whatevershebringswesing or Joy of a Toy. It's a decent mid-1970s pop album with occasional progressive sensibilities that are kept on a tight leash, in short, and from some perspectives that's a rather drab and unambitious thing for an Ayers album to be - on the other hand, if you liked Bananamour, this kind of exists in the same territory.