WORLD OF WONDER

The early years of Jump were defintely productive both in studio and live.So,the English sextet moved on to the recordings of their sophomore album ''World of Wonder'' in 1993,released again on the indepedent Salad Records.

The album is much shorter than their debut and this fact gives hope for a more inspiring material.Unfortunately ''World of Wonder'' not only marks no improvement compared to ''The Winds of Change'',but additionally gone are the few good melodies the band could create.The main problem remains the same.The album is very much commercial sounding with very short tracks,based on its energy and vocal lines,but there is an evident lack of memorable melodies and conveincing songwriting.The style is again straightforward rock with cheesy vocal breaks and groovy guitars,very far from even the UK Neo Prog sound.Jump insist on throwing some Blues and Funk influences here and there,making the album more confusing and less cohesive.The synths remain again on the background with only a couple of good passages,while the guitar work is very amateur and flat.The result is a pretty boring album,which ignores the fundamental principles of Neo Prog.

This album will be propably boring even for the biggest Neo Prog fanatic,but actually I wouldn't recommend it even to a fan of straight rock,as it doesn't contain even one simple memorable track to grab yourself from something to buy it.Not recommended at all,I will just add another half star for the decent ''Where silver calls''.

"This is no dull rehearsal, this is your only chance. The stage is set for you, come on and dance!"

World Of Wonder was Jump's sophomore album and here they showcase their "wondrous world" of eclectic Rock better than on the debut. Many of the band's trademarks were already present here (albeit in less than fully developed form) including the excellent vocals of Mr. (John Dexter) Jones, the commanding guitar playing of Steve Hayes and Pete Davies (one of the few guitar duos in Neo-Prog), and the keyboards of Mo (one of the few female keyboard players in Prog).

The album opens with A Northern Man which reminds me a bit of 80's Jethro Tull with its tasteful flute-like keyboards, clean and sharp, almost "metallic" electric guitar sound, and the nifty acoustic-electric interplay. This is a good opening number that sets the stage for a good album. However, the next couple of tracks raise warning flags as to the quality and direction of the album (and the band). I wonder how many prospective fans switched off before reaching the album's much better second half. The title track and (the autobiographical?) Mr. Jones are rather mundane, conventional Hard Rock numbers, and definitely the weakest tracks of this album. To continue with the Jethro Tull comparison, these songs can perhaps be associated with style of the latter's weak Rock Island album. Louder Than Words is a bit better, but it too is not particularly interesting even if I do like the "we counted them in, we counted them out"- section which points towards the more "theatrical" style of the excellent follow-up album ...And All The King's Men.

As I said, the second half of the album is clearly better and more interesting than the first half. The better songs begin with the excellent Gryphan's Galliard, a rocking medieval-style dance tune. Poison In The Sea is a bit of a Reggae Rock fusion. Not one my favourite songs here by any means, but it is interesting enough. Four Winds Blow is a very good progressive Folk Rock number with accordion (or something that sounds like an accordion) and a nice acoustic guitar solo. Funny is another progressive track that fuses together Jazz Rock, Funk Rock, and Folk Rock in an interesting way. Like Poison In The Sea, this is probably an acquired taste, but I like it! At this point the album has recovered from the initial malaise, but some of the best is yet to come. The final two tracks, Where Silver Calls and Whip-Hand Jack, are both excellent progressive Folk Rock pieces; the kind of Folk Rock that really rocks.

It is true that World Of Wonder suffers from the inclusion of a couple of weaker numbers, but you shouldn't let the few mundane rockers give you the wrong impression about the album and the band. World Of Wonder definitely has enough highlights to be an overall good Jump album that is even up to par with or even better than some of the band's more recent (rather different) albums. In its best moments it points towards superior subsequent albums like ...And All The King's Men and Living In A Promised Land.