THE SOFT MACHINE

Ahh, no! It's not really worth "Piper at the gates of dawn" nor even their second release! But their songs are just so catchy! I love Robert Wyatt's ranting and I love Kevin Ayers's deep voice, and I love Robert's drumming and Ratledge's sounding. "Hope for Happiness" just blows me away any time I play the record, "Why am I so short?" is just a delicious funny funky tune, "A certain kind" is gorgeous "Save yourself" should have been a hit, "Lullabye letter" is just superb, like is the frantic "Why are we sleeping?" !

But the overall sounding does not do justice to these musicians! And sometimes, I think it is plain boring. Most of the tracks are played live with very few overdubs. Likewise, the sound is not as exciting as a live recording. Kevin Ayers once said this album could have been a way better, had the sound engineer (Tom Wilson's "Velvet" as far as I recall it) been interested in the project at all.

Anyway, I think the material here is fantastic and rough and that Robert shines all through the album! That's 4 stars, easily!