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Messin' (1973)Genres: rock, progressive rock, hard rock |
The master of the mini-moog, Manfred Mann, came up with a new band after his last jazz heavy group, again he named it after himself. “Messin’ “ was their third album. The sound that I associate with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band were beginning to establish itself – heard in its prime on the title track and “Cloudy Eyes” among others. Their sound was a rock foundation with heavy use of keyboards. They would often play this style in long numbers; sometimes jammish in nature, sometimes more progressive. They were also famous for their many covers, notably on Dylan. On “Messin’ “ we have three of them: “Black and Blue”, “Mardi Gras Day” and “Get Your Rocks Off”. The latter written by Dylan. Only the first one sounds good. “Buddah” was another strong song while “Sadjoy” doesn’t make it. “Black and Blue” is a bluesy Australian “work song” that avoids the blues stereotypes pretty good but sometimes it falters on its way. The title track offers heavy guitar riffing and layers of keyboards with multi-vocal choruses and an extended instrumental part where every member could stretch out. This is not MMEB:s most progressive album, they were to come after this one, so you should check out “Solar Fire” or “Nightingales and Bombers” first and if you fancy them, then you might as well fancy this one.
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The Good Earth (1974)Genres: rock, progressive rock, hard rock |
Notably an album without a Dylan cover, but with other covers such as ”Give Me the Good Earth” and ”Launching Place”. This was the third record in a row that began with a 10-minute song, in this case it’s “Give Me the Good Earth” that pales in comparison with the two previous albums starters. It’s lousy in its main part but with a good instrumental part in the middle. The other songs on side A were like the starter not very good, although “I’ll Be Gone” is a decent rocker. On side B we find gold in the purest form on the instrumental and quite complex “Sky High” which is highlighted by Slade’s fibes drums and percussion work. And the motherlode wasn’t ebbing since “Earth Hymn” parts 1 and 2 came after. It begins with some glockenspiel work then moves into a hard progressive song with the words “Listen all around/Symphony of sound will take you…” and it was exactly what this song did. And that amazing end part of the song! A fast up-tempo rhythm with a ton of Moog sounds and Roger’s special guitar style. “Be Not too Hard” is the only thing that stains side B. It’s a trying-to-be-sweet-song-with-poetic-lyrics that fails utterly; in Sweden we call this “smör” (butter) but I don’t have a clue regarding what’s the English counterpart to this word.
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Nightingales and Bombers (1975)Genres: rock, progressive rock |
The opening cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Spirits In the Night” was not a bad song but I don’t think it fits that good with the rest of the album. We are then treated with some good and energetic songs in form of the instrumental fusion “Countdown”, the Mann-styled heavy progressive “Time Is Right” and “Crossfade”, another good instrumental song. MMEB were – in the 1973-75 phase at least – a very instrumental band at times and they often did it good. I don’t mean that the vocals were bad or unnecessary, but it was in the instrumental songs and parts that the band really melted together and became a band. And on this record half the songs are instrumentals; besides the already mentioned ones we have the title track, a good song too and then we have the closing track which I find really uninteresting. The other cover on “Nightingales and Bombers” is “Visionary Mountains” and like “Spirits In the Night” it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the material. The short “Fat Nelly” is one of the best tracks MMEB ever did. It includes a strange bass pattern, good organ, excellent percussion work and guitar. The whole album is jazzier then before but in no way is this a bad thing, since it’s not overdone, you can still hear their sound. The fusion thing that MMEB often flirted with is still here and strong, in particular in the instrumentals. And again an album without a Dylan cover! Actually this is not completely true; “Quit Your Low Down Ways” where originally included on the US release. On the remastered 1999 CD version of the album the song is included as a bonus track. It’s a very good version and would have fitted better on the album instead of one of the covers that were included.
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Solar Fire (1973)Genres: rock, progressive rock, space rock |
Originally planned to be based on Gustav Holst’s ”Planets Suite” they were forced to ditch this when permission to use adaptations didn’t came forth. The band instead came up with “Solar Fire”, still inspired by Holst. The first song is the Dylan cover “Father of Day, Father of Night”. Not only does it suits the album’s mood and theme it is also a superb song with fantastic keyboard work and good backing vocals. “Joybringer”, the single promoting the album was the only song which got permission to adapt things from Holst. It did deservingly good – UK# 9 – and are included in the remastered CD version from 1999. The reason I mention this is that the song is really good so if you are planning to buy the album you might as well buy the remastered version; if not for the “Joybringer” song so for the sound quality. The rest of the album goes on in good style and with a distinct space rock feel to it. Except for “Father of Day, Father of Night” there are no highs or lows, it’s a very good and even album, the best MMEB album I have heard. It has the usual formula of more straightforward rock songs and the more progressive ones. Check it out.
