SOLID AIR

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4.5 stars really!!!!

John Martyn's Solid Air is certainly his best known album and generally acclaimed as his best album, even if there is a crowd to contest that his later 70's albums were better (OW and G&D). I'm of the first school, even if I prefer Outside In even more. Solid Air is somewhat of an anomaly in Martyn's discography for its sleeve artwork is an abstract hand moving through matter, instead of the usual self-portrait.

Obviously the beauty of this album is represented by its title track, a superb slow emotive track about one of Martyn's closest friends,, the folk songwriter Nick Drake who was going through a severe and constant depression and would end up dying from an overdose of drugs (legit or not) the following year. Funnily enough, John Martyn's trademark Echoplex is not present as the track is mostly an acoustic guitar over Danny Thompson's sumptuous contrabass line and an amazing vibraphone, Martyn's haunting lyrics are simply spine-chilling. Of course the title track is not the only pyre beauty on this album, as Don't Wanna Know is starting very much in the same mould, but finally settles in a mid-tempo where Fender Rhodes, vibes and multi-layered vocals abound. The much faster Rather Be The Devil is quite a different beast and sees the Echoplex getting some action on Martyn's excellent and unusual guitar grunts as later on, the track veers into slow jam and ultimately its death. Grandiose as well. Other tracks like Go Down Easy are more straight forward and shows John in, if not joyful, at least in a soulful mood. Dreams By The Sea is a red hot track that sizzles on the beachside and features some wild guitar, a n excellent sax solo from Tony Coe. Another stand-out track is Man at The Station, where the Fender Rhodes guides the up-beat song into excellent breaks and changeovers.

Solid Air is generally considered as Martyn's top achievement by almost everyone, with the exception of a pro-Collins faction, who will find that the early 80's trilogy is his best moment. I'll let you the sole judge, though between the obvious Outside's Solid Weather trilogy of the early 70's and the Collins ?produced Grace-Glorious-Secret trilogy of the early 80's?.. No contest, right. Martyn's testament lays somewhere on this disc.

Richard Thompson, David Pegg just to mention a few special contributors to Solid Air....Solid Air was one of those distinctive releases that hold it's head up on high for bringing rare, precious music to the people. Prog Folk is best suited for John Martyn from a genre perspective but at times he would musically play anything but! The kind of artist you can categorize but end up being perplexed due to his strong ability to confuse by never getting stuck in a rut,the opener " Solid Air" introduces Martyn's distinct vocal traits, hypnotically laid back over several soundscapes to infuse droning harmonies, emotional beacons and bumbling frailties....vulnerability for true artists speak volumes. The music not only on the title track, but throughout is fragile to say the least.

John Martyn delivers emotion in many songs especially the title track, the self emphatic ' Go Down Easy" and the beuatifully fragile 'May You Never". I think this album is, amongst it's peers, up there with the finest. A great contrubution to sound and listening, an abstract, unusual contribution to Prog music but so valid nevertheless. This is one of his finest releases. Enjoy if you can. Four solid stars.

John Martyn's Solid Air reminds me of what would happen if you combined the intimate chamber folk of Nick Drake with the murky, slightly inebriated atmosphere of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, then added some jazz sensibilities to the mix. The Drake connection, it turns out, is no coincidence - the title track's a tribute to Nick, though as with Drake's own material it's sufficiently lyrically obtuse that I suspect only Martyn and Drake ever knew the real meanin go the song - but the connections to the rest of the British folk scene don't stop there, with various folk luminaries including Richard Thompson serving in Martyn's backing band. The focus, however, is almost always in Martyn's touching vocals, which are able to command the listener's unceasing attention.