...SOUNDS LIKE THIS

I sure run across a lot of underrated albums. The first Hawkwind album, Genesis' Trespass, Le Orme's Collage, Passport's Ataraxia (Sky Blue), Porcupine Tree's ...On the Sunday of Life, Yes' A Time & a Word and Drama, PFM's Chocolate Kings, and I'm sure I could name a few more, but these albums really don't get much respect. A few I can't understand why like Yes' A Time and a Word, for example (many complain about the orchestration, but that never bothered me, although while I enjoy Drama, many just dislike the fact Jon Anderson isn't present). Others might be because there's a few dodgy tracks (bands that have to throw in a '50s-style rock and roll boogie number or a reggae cut that's totally inappropriate to what they do) on them but there some real gems in them that really stand out, or they change musical directions, but made a valid album despite alienating many fans, and then there's some that might not like the production quality or approach (like Le Orme's Collage).

Nektar's ...Sounds Like This is another one of those underrated albums. They could have expanded on what they did on A Tab in the Ocean, instead they decided to do a live in the studio album, with minimal editing, so obviously giving it a feel of a live album, you expect to hear an audience cheer at the end of every song, that's not what you get. Many felt this was a serious backstep for the band. It's at times the band was going closer to heavy metal in the Deep Purple or Uriah Heep vein than the earlier stuff. It's probably this album the reason why they're included in Metal Music Archives. It obviously has a raw sound, and in fact has a rather intense feel, which I do like. I have to say the only song I can do without is "What Ya Gonna Do?" sounds like a generic boogie rocker of the kind Nektar usually stays away. I still hear a bit of that Tab in the Ocean sound surface. I noticed Allan "Taff" Freeman's role in the band was reduced here so you hear less of his organ playing. There are some great material like "Cast Your Fate", "Do You Believe in Magic", and "A Day in the Life of a Preacher". "New Day Dawning" also includes an excerpt of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood". I can't believe this album was recorded and released the same year as the much more popular Remember the Future (released later that year). Remember the Future had a much more polished, professional approach, and a more proggy approach, that gave the band unexpected American success (once the album was released in the States in 1974 on Passport). I was skeptical about ...Sounds Like This, so I didn't buy a copy until now, when I found a used copy at a Eugene CD/video game store (that also sold vinyl), this was a UK LP copy on United Artists, and it was cheap, so I had nothing to lose. The album isn't perfect, some of the jams go on longer than they need to (this isn't the Grateful Dead, but then even a lot of the jams the Dead did seem to go on much longer than they need to), and it's might be less prog than what they did before (A Tab in the Ocean or Journey to the Centre of the Eye) or less polished and sophisticated than Remember the Future, but then Nektar didn't seem to repeat what they did anyways. Still I find this album quite enjoyable.