DANGER MONEY

Out goes Allan Holdsworth and Bill Bruford and in comes Terry Bozzio on drums and percussion. No new guitarist was drafted. Even though Allan Holdsworth played some great solos on UK´s debut album you don´t really miss him on Danger Money as UK was never a guitar heavy band. Terry Bozzio is a great replacement for Bill Bruford even though I prefer Bruford. Bozzio is a much heavier drummer and not as subtle as Bruford. Bozzio knows his tricks though which isn´t strange as he played with Frank Zappa for a couple of years in the late seventies. Zappa was known for his notorious perfectionism and you couldn´t play with him if you were not the best.

UK´s brand of symphonic synth driven prog rock is continued here on their second album Danger Money. Eddie Jobson plays the most fantastic things on his synths and keyboards and throws in the occasional electric violin solo as well. The man is a genious in my eyes. Very seldom do I listen to keyboards that soothe my ears like these. The music is very eighties sounding, especially the choruses in songs like Danger Money and Nothing to Lose.

Don´t let the eighties thing scare you away though. There are plenty of exciting instrumental things on Danger Money that you would never find on an eighties album. Listen to The Only Thing She Needs, Caesar's Palace blues and Carrying no cross. Rendez-vous is a fantastic keyboard/ piano driven song with John Wetton singing some ok vocal lines.

Wetton! Yes Wetton is again like on the debut my biggest problem here. I dislike his voice and that´s a big problem throughout a whole album. He is a great musician, and I don´t question that, personally I just don´t like his voice.

The sound quality is good, but not as good as on the debut. Especially the drums have a more murky sound.

This is a very good album and even though I don´t particularly like John Wetton´s voice I can live with it. I gave the debut album from UK 4 big stars so I will rate this on 4 small stars as it is excellent, but not as good as the debut. It´s very recommendable though.