NEKTAR — Remember the Future (review)

NEKTAR — Remember the Future album cover

Album · 1974 · Proto-Metal

3/5 · 2024-03-26
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.