HEAVEN IS IN YOUR MIND

This is the U.S. release of Traffic's first album, MR. FANTASY. The Track listing is the same, with a different order and several track changes. Heaven... adds Traffic's first two singles ("Paper Sun" and "Hole in my Shoe") as well as the hit "Smiling Phases" but drops "Utterly Simple" and "Hope I Never Find Me There". Also added is sort of a musical reprise of Paper Sun titled "We're a Fade, You Missed This" which closes the album. The remastered CD features 4 bonus tracks. The first two are the tracks dropped from the original LP ("Utterly Simple" and "Hope I...") as well as two songs from the HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH soundtrack. These are the title track and "Am I What I Was or Am I What I Am". Overall, this is basically all of Traffic's songs before their second and self-titled album. The album is presented in Stereo and I prefer this track order over Mr. Fantasy's. The best songs are "Paper Sun", "Dealer", "Smiling Phases", "Coloured Rain", "Hole In My Shoe", "Heaven is in Your Mind" and of course "Dear Mr. Fantasy". The only song I don't like on here is "Giving to You" because it's mostly random talking over an otherwise perfect flute part. Chris Wood really shows off his talents for wind instruments as does Jim Capaldi with his vocals on "Dealer". Dave Mason's stuff is pretty different from the rest of the album (much like the Moody Blues' Ray Thomas) but he really shows off his vocals and songwriting capabilites on "Hole in my Shoe", "Utterly Simple" and "House for Everyone". Most of all, Steve Winwood writes beautiful music that keeps the album afloat. His vocals are still rather R&B-ish having just left the Spencer Davis Group (especially on the beginning of "Berkshire Poppies") but they also are very psychadelic ("Paper Sun"). The only real slow ballad on this album is the haunting "No Face, No Name, No Number" which shows excellent unique Winwood vocals that would resurface on tracks like "No Time To Live" from TRAFFIC and "John Barleycorn" from JOHN BARLEYCORN MUST DIE. Bottom Line: I reccomend this to any Traffic fan or anyone aspiring to learn about the Dave Mason era of Traffic.