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Nektar: Time Machine
Nektar: Time Machine
Melodic/Progressive Rock
4.5/5.0
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Purple Pyramid Records
by Craig Hartranft, 07.03.2013
The seminal UK progressive rock band Nektar remains constant, now well into their fourth decade of music and returning with their thirteenth album, Time Machine. It's familiar and friendly territory for this melodic progressive act, which surely please their fans.
Nektar: groovy.
Time Machine is more mature, largely safe, Nektar music. Gone for sometime, perhaps beginning as early as Remember the Future is the obscure, even weirder side, of Nektar. Early material, and some might say even later, was more an exercise in psychedelic and experimental art rock. Call this a kinder, gentler, more accessible Nektar.
This is not to say that their arrangements have lost any intrigue. But, while there is some liveliness and complexity to many songs, like If Only I Could, A Better Way, or Diamond Eyes, the band seems more focused using the foundation of agreeable melodic rock to pull you in. The title track is a good example. But better ones could come with shorter pieces like the south of the border flavor of Set Me Free Amigo, the gentle rock groove of Tranquility, or the mellow Talk to Me with nearly Gilmour-like solo. Yet for Nektar's prog rock focus always lingers and informs most everything. However, it rises to greater heights on a song like Diamond Eyes. Although this is not the best piece here by example; A Better Way probably tops it. In the end this pure Nektar, easily merging classic melodic rock with lines of creativity and intrigue for delightful progressive rock. Recommended.
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In Short
Time Machine is pure Nektar, easily merging classic melodic rock with lines of creativity and intrigue for delightful progressive rock. Recommended.
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