Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Worlds CD (album) cover

INNER WORLDS

Mahavishnu Orchestra

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

2.61 | 139 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

milesh
1 stars Oh, why did this ever occur? First the Titanic, then the Hindenburg and now THIS album!!

The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire are two of the best albums ever!! This incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, unfortunately, was a total bummer. They long their string and brass sections and said a tearful goodbye to Jean-Luc Ponty (wonderful violinist if I do say so myself). Well, even though, John McLaughlin played some funk on the early 70's Miles Davis albums, Mahavishnu Orchestra just wasn't designed for that genre - and for a good reason.

Narada Michael Walden is a fine producer and session musician but he should just stay behind the drum kit and come nowhere within thirty feet of a microphone. The songs with vocals on this album are some of the worst songs ever written: "In My Life" makes you wish it WAS a cover of the famous Beatles song from Rubber Soul; "River of My Hearts" rocks about as hard as the theme song from Cheers; and "Planetary Citizen" is so awful, words cannot describe it.

The rest is some of the worst jazz-rock-funk fusion ever played (in fact, according to the liner notes, John McLaughlin doesn't even play on two or three of the tracks - SO WHY THE HELL IS IT JUST HIM PICTURED ON THE COVER???). The keyboards sound terrible, John McLaughlin plays his guitar (intentionally) out-of-tune, and the rhythm sections needs to be more ready for a session.

All of this adds up to one of the worst fusion albums ever made. My dad has many albums that John McLaughlin was the leader on, as himself, MO and Shakti (and he was even lucky enough to get Mr. McLaughlin to sign his name on the covers!!), but my dad sold his copy after one listen, the precise reason why this album gets zero stars. Even John McLaughlin himself disowns this album.

| 1/5 |

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 MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA 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.