A Spock's Lips

Overall Album Score: 8.8 out of 10

General audiences seem to have lost track of the Mahavishnu Orchestra after Birds of Fire was released … and maybe that’s for a good reason. The entire BAND from the first two Mahavishnu studio albums and that live one are GONE and ENTIRELY replaced with a new one!

…And, I’m like -- WHAAAAAAAAAA??????? I don’t care if you guys had artistic differences! Save your bickering for the recording studio! … That’s partly what you guys were doing with your instruments at any rate.

At first listen, I thought this album was … um … weak. But, I inevitably listened to it closer and reversed that opinion. John McLaughlin (the frontman and the only static member of this group) decided he wanted the London Symphony Orchestra to help him out … and so all of these songs have a distinct “orchestral” quality to them. Perhaps that’s what McLaughlin originally wanted seeing that the band has the word “orchestra” in its name! Reportedly, he dubbed this line-up the “real Mahavishnu Orchestra.” … So … that probably does indicate this is the sort of thing he originally had in mind.

At any rate, the music’s good. Every song starts and ends with an orchestral passage. In the track reviews, I described them as sounding like Gershwin, but … it’s probably not any less accurate to say that the music sounds like any other early 20th Century classical composer! … But Gershwin’s the name that popped to mind!

In between the classical compositions are the usual Mahavishnu rock-jazz piddly jams that we’ve been used to. Unfortunately, every one of ‘em don’t compare with the rock-jazz piddly jams on The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire presumably because the supporting musicians aren’t quite as talented, but they’re still pretty good.

When it comes right down to it, this is probably the most accessible of all Mahavishnu albums, but … it’s still not exactly for the average, casual listener. You’ll really have to be into this stuff! … This is only for those of you who like listening to 20th Century classical music and rock-jazz piddly jams!

Overall Album Score: 8.8 out of 10 (It’s obvious that the band experienced a massive change-up in its musicians … but frontman John McLaughin is too talented to make a crappy album.)

Average Song Score: 8.8 (Very strong songs throughout. McLaughin still has some nice touches … and stuff …)

Album Tilt: 8.5 (The album as a whole isn’t a phenomenal listening experience, but it’s a good one. There are moments of sheer beauty and other moments of total excitement … but there are other moments where I’m more or less indifferent.)

Artist Rating: 9.0 (If nothing else, this work is artistically valid. It’s clearly not as good as the previous two Mahavishnu creations, but … few things are.)

Track Reviews

Power of Love 9/10

Noooooooooo, this isn’t that 80’s hard-pop song featured in the Back to the Future soundtrack. This is the orchestral-pop song by the Mahavishnu Orchestra! … Um … Did George Gershwin’s zombie pop out of the ground and become the new and somewhat Nazi-esque band manager? … Because … um … this definitely ain’t the Mahavishnu Orchestra that I remember from Birds of Fire and all that … This is FRIKIN easy listening MOOD MUSIC!!!!!! And to that, I say: WHAAAAA--? Where are the ELECTRIC GUITARS THAT TALK TO EACH OTHER?????? … Oh, man!! … I want my money back! This product is DEFECTIVE! ……

Okay, I’m blatantly not being fair, because as you probably noticed already, this song deserves a 9. It might not be SWEET or anything, but as far as easy listening orchestral stuff, this is pretty good. It’s artistically valid, at any rate, taking its inspiration from awesome 20th Century composers like Gershwin and maybe Stavinsky. It’s hardly cheap music …

Vision is a Naked Sword 18/20

It starts off very Gershwin-like … Apart from it not sounding like a total masterpiece, you might assume that Gershwin might have written that. The song is a whopping 14 minutes long and … doesn’t make a bad listen. The beginning is very thunderous and emotional. Then, the song basically piddles around from there. Sort of quiet, cosmic piddling. About the five minute mark, emotional violins start to flare up … I really like those violins! … Then, there’s some weird piddling around. And … HEY! THERE’S AN ELECTRIC GUITAR!!!!!!!! … Then, the song grows quiet and we hear WHALE NOISES! … They must’ve been watching some Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. There’s some nice violin work around the 9-minute mark, which does manage to recall some of my favorite moments of Birds of Fire. Then, some crazy guitar starts playing … very nice, I say. Then the mighty orchestra pipes up again and … does its thing. … I liked this song. It might not have the same sort of stamina as earlier stuff from the band, but it remains artistically valid … and we must not forget that.

Smile of the Beyond 8.5/10

An eight-minute song and the first Mahavishnu Orchestra song to feature singing! … Nah, I don’t think that really means that it detracts anything from the band. I mean, they already pretty much lost their talking/bickering instruments … might as well bring in a singer. … It’s gorgeous singing, at any rate. Whoever is singing this is a great female singer, and she sings a pretty song, too. The song itself remains very Gershwin-like (but maybe too overburden with orchestration) with a decadent melody and bold instrumentation. … This song is prettier than a bed of roses in the springtime … with dew collecting on the pedals … and sexy, naked supermodels fluttering in the background. After four minutes of that, the song picks up its pace and turns into an almost regular Mahavishnu song. … Despite that, I actually like the pretty part better! … Not that I don’t enjoy crazy electric guitar playing … I guess John McLaughlin is still in the band … and if he’s still in the band, then the electric guitar simply must be played! … It reverts back to the pretty part at the seven-minute mark. It’s not Mahavishnu’s greatest work, but it’s a fine listen.

Wings of Karma 9/10

They’re still being the ORCHESTRA! It starts off with some orchestral stuff … that’s kinda pretty … and then it turns into a normal-ish Mahavishnu song with tension, electric guitar, and all that wonderful stuff! … It remains a highly decent song and … yay! I like it! … Nothing like the good stuff on Birds of Fire, but a fairly worthy successor, I think.

Hymn to Him 17/20

Yay! More of the Mahavishnu Gershwin Orchestra! … The 19-minute song starts up with some more ORCHESTA and it slowly begins to incorporate some of McLaughlin’s guitar. About five minutes into the thing, the crazy guitar starts a-playin’! I don’t think that we, as a society, will ever get sick of the crazy guitar playing. … Or I hope not! It’s very maniacal and nuts! Woooooooo!!! That all culminates by the 8-minute mark, and a new jazzy theme emerges. This part is very quiet and piddly. The bass that eventually emerges out of this is very nice with some fine guitar licks from McLaughlin. The same theme very slowly (and I mean within about eight minutes or so) gets busier. About at the 13-minute mark, things really start getting nuts with some weird interchanges between the crazy orchestra and the crazy guitar! … This is fondly reminiscent of those wonderful interchanges from Birds of Fire. They’re not quite the same, but … they’re still quite awesome! Then, the orchestral theme is revisited. … Why do all these songs seem to have the same basic formula? … There’s only five songs on this album, so I guess it doesn’t totally matter!

Good jazz-rock piddly jams? Or, bad jazz-rock piddly spams? Send your thoughts about the matter here.