FUTURAMA

BE BOP DELUXE were quite active in the 70's releasing five studio albums but they never made it to the 80's. "Futurama" is album number two from 1975. They were a trio of guitar, bass and drums and Bill Nelson is the man in control here, the lead guitarist, composer, singer etc. I honestly thought with their band name that they would be all about the humour like OINGO BOINGO but no. This comes across like AOR material, they are tagged as Glam Rock by many. To over simplify it, it feels like your either hearing Bill sing or perform a flashy guitar solo. And this is more than that of course but there's a lot of radio friendly songs and I quite enjoyed my time with this one.

Nine tracks over 35 minutes and how about the first sounds that we hear on that opener "Stage Whispers" as in screaming guitar. The flashy solos will continue on this one. "Love With The Madman" is a top three for me. They slow it down after that energetic opener and the vocals sound different, better. Some emotion. "Maid In Heaven" sounds like a single. "Sister Seagull" is another top three. The melancholy does it for me along with the guitar solos.

"Sound Track" and the closer "Swan Song" are about the two proggiest songs on here which isn't saying a lot. Both the longest tunes here clocking in around 6 minutes. Some orchestral stuff on "Music In Dreamland", some brass. "Between The Worlds" is an uptempo rocker while "Jean Cocteau" is trippy and relaxed and I like it better than the rocker. The closer "Swan Song" is my final top three by the way.

I've seen Bill's name so often over the years so it's finally good to hear him play and sing. A solid 3 stars.