RECYCLED

Nektar is a band I have been aware for some almost 30 years , but I only really discovered in the mid-90's when I decided that they would not stay on my want-list forever. Having waited so long might have been a fatal blow to my liking the band as much as some of its contemporary groups. I have never really managed to appreciate the band's sound and hold the band's merits to the level it deserves. And this is because in between the release of Nektar's albums and my listening to them some twenty years later, a lot of groups came in and out of my sight/ear range.

Nektar , at least in the classic albums always had a very specific sound that with retrospect now was years ahead of other bands. If you just follow my train of thoughts for a bit, you will see what I am getting at. First , the fairly heavy and very guitar-ey sound of the band and the clear forcefull voice of Albrighton must've been so recognizable (i would even call it Nektar's signature) that many bands came to be inspired by it.

And many of those bands were 80's hard-rock, heavy metal or hair metal stalwart of that decade copied this sound . And it is no wonder that I think of groups/songs like Europe's final Countdown or many others (Survivor's Eye Of The tiger and so on..) , since I heard all of that terrible 80's FM rock well before I heard Nektar. Not one second would I suggest that Nektar is to be linked to the bands/songs I mentioned above , but to those who investigate this album, you might get an idea how modern the sound was/is and one may be surprise at the release date of this album just upon listening to it.

What my reasoning of course has not mentioned yet , is that if the sound is a bit 80's- ish, the format of the tracks certainly is not. Two long tracks cut in different movements , full of good interplay between Albrighton and Taff Freeman , swirling around the ever-changing but solid rythms are stunning! Just a tad directionless IMHO , mostly because I listened to this some 20 years too late. Some of these tracks would've made huge hits in the following years (most notably Automation Horrorscope).

However impressive I find this album (and other classic Nektar albums) I cannot bring myself to fully appreciate (not for a lack of trying) this band and this might explain my first statement in this review.

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