Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Return To Forever - No Mystery CD (album) cover

NO MYSTERY

Return To Forever

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

3.79 | 194 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
4 stars Another one of RTF classic line-up ventures that got a bit lost, this album is rarely seen on sale and certainly not the most representative of their discography. Sporting a psych-disco artwork, No Mystery is probably RTF's funkiest effort, but let that not deter you; it's still a worthy RTF album that you're bound to like if you dug their other works. With an unchanged line-up over WHIMYB, NM features vocals, something which hadn't happened over the previous two albums.

Yes, the funk thing is almost overpowering although you're not yet on Hancock's Headhunter album either, but this is sometimes close. The opening Dayride and later on Jungle Waterfall are full and complex funk stuff (ie. Sofistifunk) where the jazz elements are almost eradicated (White and Clarke are the main songwriters on this side), this being enhanced by Corea's disputable synth sounds. The race towards new technology was something that seemed primordial to all these jazz rock pioneers (Zawinul, Hancock and later McLaughlin with those ugly Synclavier guitar effects), often causing them to overuse and abuse these novelties and their music can seem quite dated nowadays, precisely because of these "novelties". One of the rare tracks that escape the Funkmania is the lengthier and ADM-penned Flight of The Newborn that returns to a more conservative fusion and the collectively penned Heavy Metal movement that features Corea's classical roots.

The flipside (all tracks written by Corea) starts with the title track makes a return to more standard jazz (a hint of LAAF, with Clarke's bowed bass) but again veering a bit more classical to the end. Actually, the whole side takes on a very different feel with plenty of Corea's Spanish-influenced classical musical, reinforced with ADM's guitar, the whole culminating with the first part of Celebration Suite, but the second part is not far behind: full 14-mins dramatic Hispanic histrionics and hysterics a gogo: great stuff worthy of their HOTSG album

Saved by its second side, NM is a very schizophrenic album, with its fusion and funk facets: most likely Afro-Americans will prefer the opening side, while the euro-American will prefer the flipside. In either case, NM is again a very good (if not excellent) album, but I would not recommend it as an introduction to RTF's works.

Sean Trane | 4/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this RETURN TO FOREVER review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.