Warthur Although it enjoys an enviable reputation, I have to say that I don't think Remember the Future is in the top tier of Nektar's albums. Taking a leaf from Jethro Tull's book, the group try to stretch a song across an entire album, only for a lack of material to become evident - by the last couple of minutes the song descends into fairly pedestrian hard rock, and the rest of the album just doesn't have the richness or diversity of Thick as a Brick, or even A Passion Play. The band's symphonic masterpiece would come later in the form of the brilliant first side of Recycled, but Remember the Future finds them not quite there yet, and could have done with an editing pass to trim back the filler.

siLLy puPPy NEKTAR's second album of 1973 which arrived a mere seven months after "?Sounds Like This," REMEMBER THE FUTURE proved to be the band's most successful album of its entire career. A concept album about a blind boy who can communicate with a extraterrestrial being known as Bluebird who narrates an uplifting tale and an optimism that proved to be the winning strategy at least in terms of popularity. The album featured a single track theme that was divided into two album cuts (due to the limitations of the original vinyl format) that were further broken down into shorter segments. The album provided a continuous stream of consciousness and was the band's highest charting album in both the US and Canada.

Throwing the usual curveball by delivering a completely different album that came before, NEKTAR seemed to be all about contrast. Was the band from England or Germany? Was it a space rock band? A prog one? Or hard rock? Well, the truth was somewhere in between for all of these matters with the ingredients simply being shuffled around on each album so that a different style dominated. While on "?Sounds Like This" NEKTAR focused on a loose heavier rock style that tamped down the prog and space rock attributes, REMEMBER THE FUTURE found the band attempting to balance the world of progressive rock with the easier pop musical sounds that included strong melodic hooks, more streamlined rock characteristics and in the case of this album, heavy doses of funk.

The opening "Part I" of the album long title track imitated previous album's intro tactics of a trippy intro but it doesn't take long until the music breaks into a major funk style making you think you've somehow slipped into an Earth, Wind & Fire album. The track wends and winds its way through four different segments that drift from the funk laden grooves to the hard rock guitar oriented tracks accompanied by the classic organ runs however the guitar riffs which seem to rely on a single memorable hook sound more like something that The Edgar Winter Band would've conjured up. As usual the band excels with the trippy intermissions that provide the interstitial connective tissue to bind the different suites together and these are the parts i find the most authentic in the style of the classic psychedelic space rock NEKTAR and provide the needed connection to its past.

The clear attempt to develop more accessible pop aspects seemed to be the band's modus operandi and as a transition album (along with its predecessor) into the world of more straight forward pop rock (which would emerge on the following "Down To Earth.") The album was clearly more inspired by popular pop rock bands as The Beatles and more soulful bands like Spooky Tooth than the world of Yes, Genesis and the band's previously most apparent influence, Pink Floyd. Despite the lengthy track the tracks were clearly shorter radio hit quality musical quality stitched into a larger tapestry of a concept. The two tracks really are indistinguishable as to where one begins and the other ends but more mainstream approach keeps it all humming along in a rather standard rock format for the era.

While this is considered one of NEKTAR's best albums, i have to say that i'm not very impressed by REMEMBER THE FUTURE for many reasons. While competent, it seems the band was trying to hard to balance its prog creds with a more accessible mainstream style and in the end the prog seems extremely watered down while the pop aspects sound extremely forced and dragged out. Add to that for a concept album with so many suites that supposedly narrate a larger theme, the music really doesn't vary that much and the monotony of a constant funk guitar sequence for the majority of the album is way too repetitive. Add to that the production is a bit flat even on the newer remastered versions so the original must've sounded particularly underwhelming.

It's certainly not a bad album and an entertaining listen but i find the claims of its status as NEKTAR's answer to Yes' "Tales From Topographic Oceans" or ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" to be woefully exaggerated. Certainly a major step up from the dreadfully boring "?Sounds Like This" but a far cry from the magnanimous nature of the debut "Journey To The Centre Of The Eye" or the following "A Tab In The Ocean." The next (and last) decent prog album from NEKTAR wouldn't come until the 1975 "Recycled" and although REMEMBER THE FUTURE is most certainly a prog album, it just lacks so much of the vitality that its more varied prog albums exuded. Sure there are moments where the Pink Floyd space rock seeps in and the hard rock has its field day but overall this album would've benefited from a more robust infusion of creative mojo that just wasn't firing on all cylinders. A decent attempt but not an album i choose to revisit often.

voila_la_scorie Every so often I find an album that I not only really enjoy listening to completely through from start to finish but also find myself with the music stuck in my head when I wake up, thus making me want to listen to the album yet again. Nektar’s “Remember the Future” has surprisingly become such an album.

After “A Tab in the Ocean”, this became my second purchase of Nektar’s music. Initially, “Tab” had left me with a decently good impression but had not inspired me to order more Nektar albums just yet. However, some months later I found myself enjoying the album more, particularly noting some of the proto-metal parts, and I decided on buying “Remember the Future” over “Recycled” only because it was a little cheaper. As a concept album containing only one song divided into ten parts which are all segued together save for the break between sides one and two, this album already seemed fated to rare plays simply because of the time it demanded. I couldn’t just pick a couple of favourites to play during my on-foot and in-transit commutes during the day; I had to commit to at least one whole side. As such, I first listened to each side only twice and then tended to a couple of dozen other albums I acquired within the same three months, searching for new favourite songs to add to prog and metal playlists.

I came back to the album earlier this year and gave it an attentive listen and found I really enjoyed side one, parts a) to d). There are some great vocal melodies and the singing sounds very much in the mid-70’s rock style, which I say with a compliment here. The music leans more toward the guitar this time round with the organ spending less time at the forefront. Apparently they put the guitar through Lesley cabinet speakers for the Hammond organ so the sound of the guitar is different and very pleasing. Side one alternates between melodic slower passages and more heavy rock passages with one part resembling Uriah Heep slightly. The close of side one is a spacey guitar effects solo that is pretty wild. I have to add that the rhythm section is wonderful with both bass and drums working hard to keep the background solidly strong and worthy of attention.

At first I thought side two was less exciting than side one because I felt there was less transition in tempo but listening more made me aware of some wonderful guitar bits and once again more of what made side one so pleasing. The last song really grooves with an early disco-style rhythm but with rock guitar. It’s boogie time!

The length of each side is actually very manageable with side one just under 17 minutes and side two just near 19 minutes. Unlike some great double disc concept albums that are like the audio version of a feature length film, I can get through “Remember the Future” well before my commute to work is over and still have time to enjoy reading or perhaps some other songs from playlists in my iPhone.

I bought the remastered double disc edition of this album and the second disc includes a 9-minute radio edit version of the album. The first couple of times I listened to it, I thought this was a great substitute for the whole album as it had most of my favourite parts with some of the longer sections edited down. But after really becoming acquainted with the album I noticed that a lot of good music was missing. There are also a group of songs called “The Boston Tapes” which were early recordings by Nektar back in around 1970. These reveal a more usual rock band and don’t really hint anything about the great band that would give us “A Tab in the Ocean”, “Remember the Future”, and “Recycled”.

A final note on the music, it’s very tight and well-executed with some wonderful performances by all. But as far as heavy metal goes, it only approaches heavy rock at times in the nature of 70's Uriah Heep and Scorpions but travels closer to commercial hard rock bridged to progressive rock. Still, since coming to appreciate this album, I have purchased “Recycled” and “Sounds Like This” but not even “Recycled” comes as close as “Remember” to winning my favour. As a hard rock album I'll give it 3 and a half stars. But I give it a full five as a rock album.