NEXUS

The name Argent is hardly new to me. In the late '80s, in my teens, I would frequently hear "Hold Your Head Up" on a local classic rock station, and fully aware of Rod Argent's career in The Zombies. But I had been resistant in buying their albums until recently. Probably because inconsistency seems to be a major understatement to a lot of their work. I bought All Together Now and that's plain to show. There's some excellent material, including the classic "Hold Your Head Up" and "Tragedy", at the same time some rock and roller type of material that seriously clashes. It shows they're not the most progressive of bands, and Russ Ballard was the least interested in that, while Rod Argent probably would have wanted to go full-on ELP if it weren't for his other bandmates, particularly Russ. Now I went and got Nexus. "The Coming of Kohoutek" is really a three piece suite disguised as three songs. Wow! They actually go full-on symphonic prog. Here they take on a Moog and Mellotron drenched version of the medieval hymn "Dies Irae" with some ELP-like moves. Amazing piece of music that even if you're scared away by a lot of Argent's other music, you will love this! None of the rest of the album is in that full-on symphonic prog natures of that title track. "Love" is the next piece. This is a Russ Ballard piece, and I really think it's a pretty lame song, the presence of Mellotron certainly doesn't help. "Music For the Spheres" is luckily an improvement, and I do enjoy "Thunder and Lightening" and "Keeper of the Flame". "Man of All Reasons" has a bit of a Yes thing going on, while the last piece "Gonna Meet My Maker" has that rocking gospel feel to it. While there's still that schism between the Rod Argent/Chris White and Russ Ballard team of songwriting, it sounded like they were attempting to make some more compromise, unfortunately Russ Ballard left after this album (he obviously felt more comfortable with radio-friendly material), leaving Rod Argent clearly in charge. No Nexus isn't in danger of making my "all time favorites" list any time soon, I find it rather enjoyable.