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Highlighting in album tracklistings denotes 'contains Mellotron'. On 'multi-part' tracks I've tried to indicate which parts contain 'Tron, although this isn't always possible.
Ratings:
The * rating (½-5) is my personal, entirely subjective and completely partisan rating of the music.
The 'T' ('Tron, of course...) rating (0-5) is an only slightly more objective indicator of an album's Mellotronness.
By the way, if you know of any Mellotron albums that aren't listed here, please look at my albums page first! Thanks.
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Linda McCartney Paul McCartney/Wings |
Steve McDonald Roger McGuinn |
Sarah McLachlan Ian McNabb |
Machiavel |
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Wide Prairie (1999) *½/TT |
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| Wide Prairie New Orleans The White Coated Man Love's Full Glory I Got Up The Light Comes From Within Mister Sandman Seaside Woman |
Oriental Nightfish Endless Days Poison Ivy Cow B-side to Seaside Sugartime Cook of the House Appaloosa |
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Now, after poor Linda's untimely death a few years ago, I feel really bad about saying this, but this album sucks. I've really tried to think of something positive to say about it, but I've hit a blank; poor songs, dodgy lyrics and dreadful vocals. Sorry. One thing I won't hold against it is the idea behind it; after Linda's death, Paul collected the various solo tracks she'd recorded over the years, and released them in her memory. I'm not going to be cynical about this; it's a really sweet thing to do, but unfortunately, the end result is, er, 'not that good'. By its very nature it's a little uncohesive, but that could be said of any retrospective; it might hold together slightly better if the tracks had been sequenced in chronological order, but I presume Paul had a reason for mixing them up.
Anyway, Wide Prairie has Mellotron on four tracks, played by either Linda or Paul. The title track is a faux-cowboy song, showing off Linda's vocals as you'd rather wish it wouldn't, though there's a nice helping of 'Tron strings. Linda has the good sense to keep her contributions to Oriental Nightfish down to some narration, though once more, there's some nice 'Tron. B-Side To Seaside is, of course, the original flipside to Seaside Woman, a 7" Linda put out in the mid-'70s; more narration and a little more 'Tron strings. Unfortunately, she sings again on the rather terrible Cook Of The House, and the Mellotron's inaudible this time round.
It's noticeable how good the playing is on this album; top session people all round, I suspect, and of course hubby Paul's contributions are always spot-on. Sadly, it's all a bit of a waste of talent; for all Paul's protestations, Linda was no great shakes musically, although she played keyboards (including two 'Trons) in Wings throughout the '70s. As I said, I feel pretty bad about trashing this album, but I couldn't in all honesty tell you it's any good. Apart from the general musicianship, one of its few saving graces is the amount of Mellotron on offer, but don't rush out to buy it on those grounds. Please. By the way, is this a bad place to mention the existence of the infamous 'Linda tapes', and to ask why this opportunity to make them more widely available has been missed?
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McCartney (1970, 35.08) ***/½ |
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| Lovely Linda That Would Be Something Valentine Day Every Night Hot as Sun/Glasses Junk Man We Was Lonely Oo You |
Momma Miss America Teddy Boy Singalong Junk Maybe I'm Amazed Kreen - Akrore |
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Red Rose Speedway (1973, 42.17) **/½ |
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| Big Barn Bed My Love Get on the Right Thing One More Kiss Little Lamb Dragonfly Single Pigeon When the Night Loup (1st Indian on the Moon) |
Medley Hold Me Tight Lazy Dynamite Hands of Love Power Cut |
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Venus & Mars (1975, 43.04) ***/T |
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| Venus and Mars Rock Show Love in Song You Gave Me the Answer Magneto and Titanium Man Letting Go Venus and Mars Reprise Spirits of Ancient Egypt |
Medicine Jar Call Me Back Again Listen to What the Man Said Treat Her Gently Lonely Old People Crossroads Theme |
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Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976, 46.42/56.43) ***/½ |
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| Let 'em in Note You Never Wrote She's My Baby Beware My Love Wino Junko Silly Love Songs Cook of the House Time to Hide |
Must Do Something About it San Ferry Anne Warm and Beautiful [CD adds: Walking in the Park With Eloise Bridge on the River Suite Sally G] |
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Wings Over America (1976, 115.53) ***/T |
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| Medley Venus and Mars Rock Show Jet Let Me Roll It Spirits of Ancient Egypt Medicine Jar Maybe I'm Amazed Call Me Back Again Lady Madonna The Long and Winding Road |
Live and Let Die Medley Picasso's Last Words Richard Cory Bluebird I've Just Seen a Face Blackbird Yesterday You Gave Me the Answer Magneto and Titanium Man Go Now |
My Love Listen to What the Man Said Let 'em in Time to Hide Silly Love Songs Beware My Love Letting Go Band on the Run Hi Hi Hi Soily |
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London Town (1978, 51.06) **½/T |
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| London Town Cafe on the Left Bank I'm Carrying Backwards Traveller Cuff Link Children Children Girlfriend I've Had Enough |
With a Little Luck Famous Groupies Deliver Your Children Name and Address Don't Let it Bring You Down Morse Moose and the Grey Goose |
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McCartney II (1980, 38.04/58.43) ***/T½ |
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| Coming Up Temporary Secretary On the Way Waterfalls Nobody Knows Front Parlour Summer's Day Song Frozen Jap |
Bogey Music Darkroom One of Those Days [CD adds: Goodnight Tonight Check My Machine Secret Friend] |
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Flowers in the Dirt (1989, 53.42) ***/0 |
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| My Brave Face Rough Ride You Want Her Too Distractions We Got Married Put it There Figure of Eight This One |
Don't Be Careless Love That Day is Done How Many People Motor of Love Où est le Soleil? |
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Off the Ground (1993, 50.07) **½/½ |
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| Off the Ground Looking for Changes Hope of Deliverance Mistress and Maid I Owe it All to You Biker Like an Icon Peace in the Neighborhood Golden Earth Girl |
The Lovers That Never Were Get Out of the Way Winedark Open Sea C'mon People/And Remember to Be... Cosmically Conscious |
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Flaming Pie (1997, 53.44) **½/0 |
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| The Song We Were Singing The World Tonight If You Wanna Somedays Young Boy Calico Skies Flaming Pie Heaven on a Sunday |
Used to Be Bad Souvenir Little Willow Really Love You Beautiful Night Great Day |
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Recorded during the prolonged, messy breakup of The Beatles, McCartney is that rare thing, a genuine solo album, with Paul playing everything, bar a few keyboard parts and vocals from 'lovely Linda'. A sparse, underproduced album, some of it was recorded on a 4-track at the McCartneys' new farm in Scotland, as well as the ubiquitous Abbey Road. Many of the songs are no more than sketches, but the whole thing was a canny move on Paul's part, in retrospect, highlighting how overblown the Beatles had become in comparison. The album has produced only one song of any real consequence, Maybe I'm Amazed, a major hit years later in its live form, although Macca fans rate the album fairly highly. MkII Mellotron on one track, Singalong Junk, an instrumental version of the earlier Junk with a background string part, but nothing you couldn't live without, to be honest.
Next up was the first Wings album proper, Red Rose Speedway; in all honesty, it's a horrendously dull album of mid-paced, unexciting early '70s soft-rock, which is probably why they were so fantastically successful, a fact that is largely forgotten these days. Paul plays 'Tron on two parts of the four-part Medley, Lazy Dynamite and Power Cut, although it's effectively inaudible on the former, with only a few string chords towards the end of the latter. Nothing on possibly the best Wings album, Band on the Run, but '75's Venus & Mars features some vaguely 'Strawberry Fields' flutes (and who else is qualified to play them, eh?) on Call Me Back Again. The rest of the album is impeccably produced boredom, lost in the mid-'70s, when writing songs called Rock Show and Magneto And Titanium Man obviously seemed like a good idea.
'76's terribly democratic Wings at the Speed of Sound (all members sing on various tracks) has several bits that could be Mellotron, though the only totally obvious one is the few seconds of choir on Wino Junko. I see this is where Linda's Cook Of The House comes from, but as you can see from the review of her album above, although Mellotron's credited, it's totally inaudible (are these even the same versions?), unless it's providing some (all?) of the sax work. Surprisingly, one really good song in Beware My Love, although both the album's major hits (Silly Love Songs and Let 'Em In) are at least catchy, if infuriating. Wings' only 'serious' use of the instrument, however, was on their next release.
Despite Wings being at their commercial peak in 1976, a triple live album seems a little excessive, though I believe it sold well enough at the time. I presume its near-two hours encompasses a whole gig, although I expect it's taken from several different ones, as is often the way with these things. The band were a five-piece at this point, including Linda on keys; now, she was never going to challenge Oscar Peterson, exactly, but that's probably rather missing the point. McCartney wasn't after stunning musicianship, more a workable group dynamic (while Wings weren't exactly a democracy, I get the feeling there was some band spirit at the time), so having his competent-enough wife on keyboards makes perfect sense in that context. Her backing vocals were another matter, but maybe we should just draw a discrete veil over that issue...
The album's tracklisting looks quaintly anachronistic now, with many of the songs lost in the mists of time; Medicine Jar, Richard Cory, Time To Hide, anyone? Most of the band's hits are on it somewhere, as is guitarist Denny Laine's '66 hit with the pre-Justin Hayward Moody Blues, Go Now. There's even a handful of Beatles songs, in those days before Paul would come to largely rely on them to fill arenas. Essentially, though, it's a Wings set, not an ex-Beatles'. Anyway, alongside the Hammond, Rhodes and MiniMoog, I believe Linda played two Mellotrons (later one Mark V, I think), but makes very little use of them, to be honest. Half a dozen tracks with largely background strings trying to recreate studio string section parts doth not a Mellotron Album make, although the stuff on the excellent Live And Let Die works really well. It's possible that there's flutes on a couple of tracks, too, but I wouldn't put money on it, as it's all buried away in the mix, so don't go buying this hoping to hear some decent 'Tron work. Oh, and all the brass is real.
1978's London Town has an updated sound compared to Macca's mid-'70s efforts, but thirty years later, just sounds tired and cynical. As usual, one cheeso hit (With A Little Luck), and an awful lot of filler, with the album clocking in at over fifty minutes. The only point at which they do anything even remotely innovative is on the album's best track, Morse Moose And The Grey Goose, where they stick a piano through a fuzzbox, alongside a clean one. OK, different... Mellotron choirs on Famous Groupies, and while it's possible it's in the background on one or two other tracks, it's more likely to be one of those new-fangled polysynth things. Paul made one more album under the Wings banner, '79's Back to the Egg, but despite rumours, it appears to be 'Tron-free.
There's Mellotron all over Paul's second solo album proper, McCartney II, from 1980. He plays every instrument on the album, meaning that quite a few things have to be keyboard approximations, and some of those, in those pre-sampler times, have to be 'Tron. I've read that this is a highly eccentric album, and after hearing Temporary Secretary, I don't feel inclined to argue. What was he on? Well, after his '79 Tokyo weed bust, I hardly need to comment... The album has its highlights, even from my perspective; the quite beautiful Waterfalls is excellent, with Summer's Day Song having a similar vibe. Thankfully, nothing else comes close to the infuriating tweeness of Coming Up. Anyway, on the (presumably) Mellotron front, the saxes on the irritating Coming Up have exactly the same 'weak notes' each time round the chorus, and I'm sure I can hear the odd key-click, while the instrumental Summer's Day Song is very clearly 'Tron flute, particularly in the chordal passages. Bogey Music has more saxes, but in a lower register, with yet more saxes on one of the CD's bonus tracks, the interminable Secret Friend.
After a rather uncertain period in the mid-'80s, Flowers in the Dirt is critically regarded as Paul's 'comeback' album. Surprisingly, he collaborated on much of the album with Elvis Costello, at a career peak himself, adding a bit of Lennonesque roughage to McCartney's overly sweet style. Most of the album's keyboards are of the then-current 'very digital' variety, although I'm sure I spotted a Wurly piano at one point. Credited Mellotron, for the first time in years, on the reggaeish How Many People, played by Paul, but I have to say, it's totally inaudible, so Christ knows what he actually did with it.
Four years on, Off the Ground is generally regarded as a similar, though slightly lesser album than its predecessor; Costello collaborated again, though only on the writing front this time. Once again, one credited 'Tron track, and this time you can (wait for it) actually hear the thing, with rather murky-sounding flutes on the intro to I Owe It All To You, making it the first audible McCartney Mellotron since McCartney II. After another four years, and post-the Beatles Anthology project, Flaming Pie (a Lennon reference) is, basically, more of the same; if you're a Paul fan, you'll probably like it, while the rest of us start shifting about in our seats. Yet again, one credited 'Tron track, the ballad Little Willow, although I've no idea what it's supposed to be doing. Paul's massed harmonies? Unlikely. The echoed synth line? I think not. So... what? So what indeed.
Paul apparently toured the States with his Mark V recently, though a thorough study of the tour DVD (by someone else) failed to locate it. If it was there, it should be on Back in the U.S.: Live 2002, but having given the album a good listen, the only time I even remotely thought I might have heard it was on The Fool On The Hill, but it wasn't, so we'll scrap that one.
So... have McCartney/Wings made any albums worth buying for their Mellotron use? Frankly, no, although there's a passable 'Macca/'Tron' compilation to be made by someone with a) the original albums and b) plenty of time. So don't look at me.
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The Riddle & the Rhyme (1980) ***/TT |
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| Sentimental Boys Cause of Confusion Distant Drum (Vertical Hum) Universal Prime Force Reflection Omnipresence The Riddle and the Rhyme |
Predestination Time Identity Collision With Destiny Meltdown Creation The Tree of Life The Fall |
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Steve McDonald is known these days as a highly successful Celtic musician, despite being a New Zealander; he's clearly tapped into his Scots heritage, and good luck to him. He's actually been around since at least the early '70s, playing with bands such as Taylor and Timberjack and appearing on Human Instinct's final album, Peg Leg, only released in 2002. The Riddle & the Rhyme was apparently his first solo album, featuring a rather eccentric sleeve design; not just the cover itself, but the montage of pictures inside the gatefold, showing Steve carrying what is clearly his favourite string synth around various locations, including a pub and a bus stop. And I haven't even mentioned the rear sleeve, with Steve in white evening dress (and waist-length hair), seated at a grand piano with the maker's logo replaced with a plaque displaying the album title...
Anyway, the album is a strange mixture of styles, from the pop/rock of Universal Prime Force through the soft rock schlock of Sentimental Boys and Distant Drum (Vertical Hum) to the proggy Predestination and Meltdown, which take up much of side two. Steve's Mellotron work is somewhat variable, with cellos and exceedingly murky strings on Sentimental Boys and Distant Drum, while Omnipresence has a slightly better string part and sound, with more strings and mushy choir on the title track. This leaves Universal Prime Force as probably the album's best 'Tron track, though despite the number of songs featuring the beast, this is some way from being a top-notch 'Tron album.
Actually, this is some way from being a top-notch anything album, really, although it's interesting as a curio of late-period Kiwi (semi-) prog. Try not to pay as much as I stupidly did for a copy. Oh, and going by recent pictures, he still has the hair.
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Peace on You (1974, 35.04) ***/TPeace on YouWithout You Going to the Country (Please Not) One More Time Same Old Sound Do What You Want to Together Better Change Gate of Horn The Lady |
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By 1974, The Byrds were well and truly history, and Roger McGuinn had already released his eponymous solo album. His second such effort, Peace on You, was a decent enough slightly country-rock effort, very recognisably McGuinn on the vocal front, although his trademark Rickenbacker 12-string only appears sporadically, notably (and ironically?) on Same Old Sound, although Gate Of Horn and probably the album's best track (probably because it sounds most like The Byrds), The Lady, feature it too. Overall, it'd be hard to argue that this is his finest work, and while Byrds completists shouldn't be wildly disappointed, nothing here matches the quality of his best work with that band. Well, are you surprised?
Uncredited Mellotron here and there, apparently from Paul Harris, with strings on the opening title track, which starts nicely before going slightly honky-tonk later on, and the same on (Please Not) One More Time, clearly recorded 'on the fly', as chords fade out and back in, as Harris re-triggers notes. So; passable, nowt special, for either music or 'Tron, although The Lady could well do with anthologising.
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Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff (1996, 62.32) **½/T |
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| Dear God I Will Remember You Fear [LunaSol remix] Gloomy Sunday [live] Full of Grace Song for a Winter's Night Blue Drawn to the Rhythm [live] |
Shelter [violin mix] As the End Draws Near [extended remix] Vox [extended remix] Into the Fire [extended remix] Possession [rabbit in the moon remix] |
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Sarah McLachlan is possibly the archetypal Lilith Fair artist; a rather wet female singer-songwriter who over-emotes at every opportunity. There's a huge audience for this sort of thing, mostly single women, but I'm afraid to say it couldn't leave me much colder if it tried. The slightly clunkily-titled Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff does exactly what it says on the tin, although it's only a selection of the apparently large number of tracks she recorded for singles, compilations etc. The album has moments of genuine beauty - McLachlan's multitracked harmonies on Blue are gorgeous - but all too many tracks feel, to an outsider like myself, to be a Carole King by numbers for this generation.
Mellotron on a couple of tracks (from David Kershaw), starting with cellos on Sarah's take on XTC's Dear God, also found on Testimonial Dinner, the 1995 XTC tribute album. A brief burst of flutes on Song For A Winter's Night, but that seems to be your lot. So; if you're a McLachlan fan, you'll probably like about half of this, if you don't already own the tracks anyway. I can't imagine who would want to listen to several crapola dance remixes of her work, as they're not going to satisfy either the dance crowd or her fans, and by all accounts, there are better rare tracks not on here, but that's compilers for you. Not much Mellotron, and not a very exciting record, so the rest of us should probably discretely withdraw.
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A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Emotional Party (1998, 47.03) ***½/T½ |
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| Sex With Someone You Love A Guy Like Me (and a Girl Like You) Loveless Age You Only Get What You Deserve Bloom The Man Who Can Make a Woman Laugh Liverpool Girl Absolutely Wrong |
Little Princess Girls Are Birds |
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Ian McNabb (2001, 59.42) ****/TT |
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| Livin' Proof (Miracles Can Happen) Whatever it Takes What You Wanted Liverpool Girl (If We Believe) What Love Can Do Alright With Me Hollywood Tears Open Air |
Nothin' Less Than the Very Best Hotel Stationary Rockin' for Jesus Friend of My Enemy Moment in the Sun (I Wish I Was in) California |
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Waifs & Strays (2001, recorded 1993-2000, 79.06) ***½/TT |
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| Loveless Age Camaraderie Fire Inside My Soul Gak Mummy No.1 I'm a Genius Me and the Devil Why Are the Beautiful So Sad? Misty Meadows |
Not Lost Enough to Be Rescued Time of My Time Great Dreams of Heaven Nobody Say Nothin' to No One You Stone My Soul The New Golden Age |
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Before All of This (2005, 56.11) ***½/T½ |
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| There Oughta Be a Law Before All of This Unfinished Business in London Town Western Eyes The Lonely Ones (1) Rider (the Heartless Mare) Finally Getting Over You |
Let the Young Girl Do What She Wants to The Nicest Kind of Lie Lovers at the End of Time Picture of the Moon The New Me Keeping Your Love Alive The Lonely Ones (2) |
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Liverpudlian (and proud of it!) Ian McNabb was the mainman of '80s jangly popsters The Icicle Works, who always had more depth to their sound that they were given credit for. His second solo album, 1994's Head Like a Rock, was notable for containing several tracks recorded with the incomparable Crazy Horse, although they only exacerbated McNabb's Neil Young comparisons. After '96's excellently-titled Merseybeast, his fourth effort was the largely acoustic (deep breath) A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Emotional Party. I can see this one being something of a 'grower'; the songs are mostly heartfelt, with excellent lyrics and a refreshing lack of cynicism. I'll probably re-review this in a year, and give it a higher star rating. McNabb's credited with Mellotron on two tracks, with a regular string part on opener Sex With Someone You Love, with its ever-rising key changes, and also one of the small number of songs in the popular canon dealing with masturbation. You Only Get What You Deserve has more strings, but that's it, at least for this album.
Three years later, Ian McNabb, is, if anything, an improvement on its predecessor, with excellent, witty songwriting, viz Liverpool Girl or Rockin' For Jesus. The playing is more upfront than on A Party Political Broadcast..., with several tracks rocking out in grand style, with notable irony on Whatever It Takes, although McNabb's Neil Young fixation rears its slightly disfigured head again on Moment In The Sun. Difficult to work out exactly what is and isn't Mellotron here, as McNabb and drummer Geoff Dugmore both also play 'digital keyboard', but it sounds like 'Tron strings on (If We Believe) What Love Can Do, Open Air and Moment In The Sun, of which only the first is a typical ballad.
A collection of odds'n'sods from later the same year, Waifs & Strays, also features the Great White Beast; its contents range from '93 to 2000, and are pretty much all good enough to have made 'proper' album release (several are, in fact, 'work in progress' versions of tracks which ended up on McNabb's '90s albums). As with so many such projects, the tracks which aren't pre-production demos (Fire Inside My Soul, Loveless Age, several others) aren't sub-standard, just didn't quite fit onto the album for which they were recorded. There are some real gems here, not least the vocal and solo electric take on Head Like a Rock's Fire Inside My Soul, with no track making you think, "Wish they'd left that off...", even the generic blues, Not Lost Enough To Be Rescued. Mellotron on three tracks, with some really cranky single-note choir on Gak Mummy No.1 (cocaine/ancient Egypt reference), complete with outrageous key-click, strings on the balladic Why Are The Beautiful So Sad? and Nobody Say Nothin' To No One.
McNabb's 2005 release, Before All of This, is a single disc laid out as a double, split into 'acoustic' and 'electric' halves. The songwriting's as good as ever, although splitting the tracks this way might not work quite as well as integrating the styles. Best tracks? Maybe Western Eyes from the acoustic half (clever lyrics, too) and The Nicest Kind Of Lie from the electric camp. McNabb plays Mellotron on four tracks, with gentle strings on opener There Oughta Be A Law and The Lonely Ones (1), the latter also featuring McNabb's weird 'autotune vocals', a.k.a. how to gleefully misuse an expensive piece of studio gear. On the electric half, there's nothing audible on The Nicest Kind Of Lie, with more of those background strings on Picture Of The Moon, making for a fairly low-key Mellotron album.
So; A Party Political Broadcast... and Ian McNabb, are a cautious recommendation for those of you into singer-songwriter territory, but only the second is at all worth it for the 'Tron. Waifs & Strays and Before All of This are decent enough, with a handful of real gems on the former, but are unexciting Mellotronically.
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Jester (1977, 46.12/50.23) ****/TTTT |
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| Wisdom Sparkling Jaw Moments In the Reign of Queen Pollution The Jester Mr. Street Fair Rock, Sea and Tree |
[CD adds: The Birds Are Gone I'm Nowhere] |
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Mechanical Moonbeams (1978, 41.44/53.39) ****½/TTTT |
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| Beyond the Silence Summon Up Your Strength Rope Dancer Rebirth After the Crop Mary The Fifth Season |
[CD adds: Wind of Life I'm Not a Loser] |
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Urban Games (1979) **½/TT½ |
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| The Humans Over the Hill Still Alive City Flowers Dancing Heroes I'm Not a Loser Let Me Live My Life The Dictators |
[CD adds: Over the Hill (remix) King of Slogans] |
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A few years ago, my mate Danny persuaded me to accompany him on an insane overnight trip to Belgium to see the reformed Machiavel, featuring Danny's friend and Now keyboard player Hervé Borbé. I really didn't know what to expect (this was my first trip across the Channel to catch a gig. But not my last...), but they were magnificent. Despite playing some pretty awful later material, they opened their set with the massed synths of Wisdom from Jester, and proceeded to play many other numbers from the band's first three albums. So, what was all the fuss about? Why get four hours' sleep in 48 to see a band almost no-one outside Belgium has ever heard of?
I'd bought a reduced copy of Jester a year or so earlier as an experiment, and was instantly captivated. Machiavel's strange mixture of Genesis, Yes and Supertramp is actually quite unique, although it sounds only partly-formed on '76's Machiavel, despite some decent material. Keyboard man Albert Letecheur obtained a Mellotron before recording began on the following year's Jester, which put them into a whole different league. I don't know if they ever really played abroad, but I'm sure they could've broken out of Belgium with some hard work and a little luck. Mind you, '77 in Britain wasn't the best year for prog...
On Jester, Machiavel found the elusive quality that escapes so many bands: Their Own Voice. The influences mentioned above are just that; influences. The Supertramp comparison (not one that many bands would clamour for) is evident only in Letecheur's percussive electric piano, his chief instrument, but his synth and Mellotron work show how individual his style had become. There isn't a duff track on the album, with particular highlights being Wisdom and The Jester, with its scintillating Moog part. Most of the 'Tron use is on the choir front, although Moments gives the strings a rare outing (Letecheur mostly used string synth, for some reason), but the album's strengths are in its songwriting and arrangements rather than the Mellotron parts.
1978's Mechanical Moonbeams is, if anything, even better, although the first hints of their later mainstream style can be heard creeping through some of the arrangements, particularly with regard to Jean Paul Devaux's more upfront guitar parts. This is still superbly symphonic progressive, however, just with more rhythm guitar than many bands utilised. The material is almost universally excellent, with particular highlights being Rope Dancer, The Fifth Season and one of their best-loved songs, After The Crop. Again, most of the Mellotron work is choirs, although there's a string part in The Fifth Season; good all round, very atmospheric, very tasteful, although there is one 'Tron oddity on the album. After The Crop features, at around the five-minute mark, what has to be the only example of 'boogie 'Tron choir' ever. This quite defies description, to be honest; hear it and marvel! Although excellent, it's indicative of the direction the band would head in before long, but don't let that put you off. The CD has one 'Tron bonus track, too, in Wind Of Life; more choirs, usual stuff. Top marks, incidentally, for the bizarre artwork on these two albums, although I'm not entirely sure how they got away with the inside gatefold of Jester...
In retrospect, I suppose it's quite amazing that Machiavel put out a prog classic as late as 1978, so it's no surprise at all that '79's Urban Games is something of a letdown, though apparently the following year's New Lines is much worse. Mainstream rock with progressive bits in places, Urban Games is generally one for the prog fan to avoid, to be honest, although it tends towards 'low side of average' rather than 'complete rubbish'; imagine a much less progressive version of their previous sound and you're probably somewhere near. Letecheur (on his last album with the band) still gets the 'Tron onto five tracks, pretty much all choir, but it's all fairly uninspiring stuff.
So; buy Jester and Mechanical Moonbeams immediately. Two superb albums, with excellent Mellotron work to boot. Machiavel's also worth hearing, but apart from a recent-ish live album, er, Live, from the period when I saw the band, give everything else a miss. It would be nice if any contemporaneous live recordings crept out, but don't hold your breath.
