CALL DOWN THE MOON

Since reforming in 1983, studio releases from the Welsh combo have been a bit thin on the ground having only released four to date. This one, "Call Down the Moon", is the second and was recorded in 1994. Having said that, even in their seventies heyday man were more about the live experience with their extended Psychedelic/Prog jams and have far more live than studio releases to their name.

Man used to be the UK equivalent to the American west coast Jam Bands like the Grateful Dead and The Quicksilver Messenger Service. However this and all post seventies releases have a more mainstream Rock, occasionaly Bluesy style.

Having said that, when I first bought this album and slipped it into my cd player I was pleasantly surprised by album opener and the tilte track "Call down the Moon". Were Man returning to their seventies style that I loved so much? Well kind of, but only for two tracks on the album, the other one being the twelve minute "Drivin' Around". If the whole album had been of similar quality to these two tracks I would have awarded it four stars. Both tracks have great Micky Jones vocals and the later has an extended Guitar workout between Micky and Deke Leonard.

"Dream away" is a fairly decent laid back Bluesy number and one of the better shorter songs. "Heaven and Hell" is also enjoyable with another Micky Jones vocal and clocks in at eight minutes (I nearly always enjoy Man best when they stretch out a bit).

Not that the rest of the album is bad, it's far from it, but just a bit unremarkable and album closer is a bit of a throwaway track with ex- Gentle Giant Drummer, John Weathers singing "Burn my Workin' clothes".

Overall perhaps their best post seventies studio release (although I'm yet to hear this years release "Diamonds and coal") but it would have been good to hear Deke play more Guitar than he appears to; around this time he took over Keyboard duties in the band. For me one of the highlights of the Man sound was the Guitar interplay between Deke and Micky and it would have been great to have more of it here.

Were I able to award half stars I would have given it three and half but as I can't it's a strong three.