SECOND PASSPORT

I came late to Passport, not ever having heard of them until about 1993. After Blue Tattoo, I first bought Passport Control, then Hand Made, Looking Thru, and Cross- Collateral in the span of just a few months, and finished with Infinity Machine within a year after those. For quite a few years, I was content with those mainly due to the fact that Blue Tattoo, a later album was a pretty weak effort and Infinity Machine contained the writing on the wall. Besides, from what I'd heard and from what I'd read, Cross-Collateral was the peak of Passport's oeuvre. Their first two albums, however, I just couldn't obtain being that they were out of print. However, I would check online for them every 4-6 months and after about two years, found a German website selling them. The price was good, but being in the US, the shipping would essentially double the cost! Finally, feeling the odds were against me that they'd ever be released again, I broke down and bought them for over $55 and this was when the US dollar still had a favorable exchange rate against the Euro. In all honesty, I have to say it was absolutely worth it (check out my review of Passport-Doldinger). Indeed, I've grown to love Second Passport more than Cross- Collateral. The few tracks that aren't excellent are Mandragora, Fairy Tale, and Registration O. I mean, they're decent enough songs, but well, let me use an analogy to describe it. I consider Passport "bread", in that they're a staple in my music diet. I listen to them more than just about any other band, save for my current obsession, whoever that may be. That said, virtually every Passport album I own (the first 6 studio albums, one of the live "Jubilee" albums, and Blue Tattoo) contains at least one, bland "white bread" song. The rest vary from wheat to a nice dense oatmeal bread to a complex marble rye. ;-) Anyway, enough of the digression. Get Yourself a Second Passport is a very good song, but the real surprise for me was the absolute excellence of Nexus, Horizon Beyond, and The Cat From Katmandu. The standout players are Wolfgang Schmid (his debut w/Passport) and of course Doldinger, who wails on Nexus and provides one of his best ever melodies on The Cat From Katmandu. Schmid's overdriven bass playing on Horizon Beyond will blow out your speakers! A great sound and feeling for those of us who love good bass tone & playing. I'd give this album at least 4½ stars, maybe even 5 just for those three songs... they're that good. But, overall, it's a more like a 4 star album, mainly because Fairy Tale drags the rest of the album down...

...but then, I probably haven't given the song enough of a chance.