After having quite a successful pop career in the sixties with a few hits, Manfred Mann decided to move with the musical times and formed The Earth Band in ’71 and went down a more contemporary path with a very progressive vibe.
I’m sure everyone is familiar with the band’s amazing cover of the Springsteen song, Blinded By The Light, which appeared on the Roaring Silence album, but that was not the first Springsteen track the band covered as they did Spirit In The Night on this album and it was an upgrade on the original. Countdown is an instrumental with a very Celtic feel to the arrangement, mainly due to the main riff. Time Is Right follows and has a very off-time funky groove and a great instrumental section. Side 1 closes out with Crossfade, another instrumental with a jazz fusion vibe.
A cover of Joan Armatrading’s Visionary Mountains opens up Side 2, and I would call this a typical seventies extended album track. Quit Your Low Down Ways was not on European copies of the album. It was added to the US version as the record company thought there were not enough vocal tracks on the album. To be honest, it’s not that great a track. The title track is again an instrumental and is the most progressive sounding piece on the whole album, with big nods to fusion pioneers of the day. The very quirky Fat Nelly is next and uses the intro keyboard pattern that they would use on Blinded By The Light. The album closes out with As Above So Below, which was recorded Live and is another instrumental with a funky reggae groove – its a strange but wonderful track to end with.
8.5/10 from The Grooveman.
