DANGER MONEY

Second and final studio album from this short-lived super group, which had already faced one major overhaul by seeing the jazzier members (Bruford and Holdsworth) quit and thus leaving this AOR "dream team" of Wetton and Jobson alone at the helm, having to hire the excellent ex-Zappa drummer into the fold. Coming with an horrible and laughable artwork supposed to illustrate the alum's title, this album has not aged well at all, especially after hearing the duo's next adventures (Tull and Asia) and it is exactly this type of album that had most punk a aficionados cry its hate over AOR-ish "prog"

Right from the opening lines of the opening never-ending (8-mins+) title track, you can feel the false heaviness of the propos, as if they tried to mimic early Mahavishnu crossed with Crimson, the group's credibility is shot by the AOR-ish Asia-like that overstays its welcome by at least four or five minutes. Jobson's keyboard choices are very disputable (been so ever since his Curved Air days), but nowhere is this more evident in this opening track. The following Rendez" Vous At 6:02 doesn't fare much better, feeling like it could sit on Asia's debut album and get lost in the shuffle. I never understood why such a wimpy track got so much attention from fans. The side-closing never-endinf 8-mins Only Thing She Needs' ridiculous title (for such a long track) can't hide the vaccuousness of their music, this kind of track meriting some of Journey or REOS worst (meaning more popular) albums, except that the trio musical abilities easily surpass all of these groups. Bozzio's brilliant and infernal drumming and Jobson's organ playing are somewhat saving this song, but can't convince with such a title looming over it.

To show us how the group's vacuous ideas are ghastly and flat, Ceasar's Palace Blues has Wetton telling us about his Vegas-ian adventures over Jobson's electric violin, which sounds so poor next to Ponty's grandiose achievements during the same late 70's. Both that Blues and its successor Nothing To Lose are about as ridiculous and are leading one's thoughts towards Asia's first few albums. Wetton's terrible AOR vocals are definitely not helping me dispel this thought either, even if the 12-mins closer allow the trio to let steam off, but then again the limited songwriting abilities is evident as are the group's instrumental limitations (they're only a trio, despite being brilliant at their respective tracks), and in this case sounding like ELP (Wetton's voice is closest to Lake as anyone else's), which might needed the song to beef up Love Beach of that same year.

Clearly, Wetton's career never recovered from Crimson' closure. Jobson never being brilliant in the later 70's, even if his tenure with Curved Air was not exactly stellar at a particular point in his career (IMO), being one of prog's most over-rated instrumentalists. If the first self-titled album is still brilliant in place, DM does not have the same "luck". Although you can still hear the worn diamond blade's edge and ancient gem-like instrumental prowess here and there, this album is best avoided unless one actually like Wetton's AOR penchants.