ARGENT: NEXUS (1974)
1) The Coming Of Kohoutek; 2)
Once Around The Sun; 3) Infinite Wanderer; 4) Love; 5) Music From The Spheres;
6) Thunder And Lightning; 7) Keeper Of The Flame; 8) Man For All Reasons; 9) Gonna
Meet My Maker.
The last Argent/Ballard studio collaboration is
generally quite underrated, I think. It yielded no hit singles whatsoever, sank
on the charts, directly preceded the loss of a key member and only rose as high
as two stars on the All-Music Guide — most probably, rated according to its
historical trajectory rather than actual song quality. It ain't no masterpiece,
for sure, but it's hardly worse than In
Deep — in some respects, it might even be better.
Band members are usually known to quit because
of ego conflicts, yet it would be hard to suspect an ego conflict on Nexus: the balance here is tilted
significantly towards Argent on Side A, then leans to the other side with the
flip of the turntable. Lovers of Argent's brand of pompous hard rock will be
placated with two heavy numbers, but Russ also shows his sentimental side on
the minimastically titled ʽLoveʼ, and a new-found passion for Scottish martial
music on ʽMan For All Reasonsʼ. In the meantime, Mr. «Hot Rod» Argent gets ever
more and more progressive, with two long, complex, baroque-soaked suites (one
of them fully instrumental) and yet another self-elevating anthem — after ʽI Am
The Dance Of Agesʼ, comes ʽKeeper Of The Flameʼ.
All the usual caveats, reprimands, and honors
alike apply to Nexus as well. ʽThe
Coming Of Kohoutekʼ will be seen as a triumph of creativity and emotion by
some, as a pretentious derivative bore by others. I think it deserves credit
at least for the wide variety of tricks it pulls together. There are
overwhelmingly pompous, «imperial» synthesizer parts, light atmospheric guitar
jams à la mid-period Floyd,
Bach-derived organ interludes, Chopin-esque piano rolls, and a couple aggressive
synth / organ / guitar climaxes that The Comet of Kohoutek might have enjoyed,
had it actual ears to hear. On the other hand, everything is a little too limp
and restrained to properly reflect such a kick-ass-tral force. Enjoying is one
thing, getting overwhelmed is another.
Therefore, I would say that the real highlight
of the album is ʽMusic From The Spheresʼ, a composition that does not try to
invoke the feeling of Absolute Might, but instead plays out like an extended
fairy dance — a jazz/classical hybrid driven by Rod's high-pitched melody,
always staying on the right end of the keyboard until the effect becomes
almost hypnotic: the three-minute long coda brings a new meaning to the word
«repetitive», but if you play it long enough in the dark, you might eventually
start seeing little musical fireflies hopping under your nose. In the good
tradition of ʽLothlorienʼ and particularly ʽBe Gladʼ, the song once again gives
us Rod Argent as an illusionist-mesmerizer, his best emploi in his prog years.
Ballard, in the meantime, is dreaming of giving
his muscular rockers a religious flavor — ʽThunder And Lightningʼ would hardly
be out of place on a Manowar album, what with its GENUINE THUNDER INTRODUCTION, echoey electric current-imitating
synths and guitars, and, of course, Mr. Ballard himself, screeching and
bellowing like the great Thor himself. It would be utterly awful if the chorus
weren't catchy, and the arrangement weren't so creative. As it is, «hilarious»
is more like it. On the other hand, ʽGonna Meet My Makerʼ is slower, more
stately, based on a simple and memorable blues riff of a ʽBorn Under A Bad
Signʼ-threatening quality, but never seems to decide whether it really wants to
be a commanding Old Testament-oriented blues-rocker, or an operatic performance
— Ballard's vocals clearly veer towards the latter, and this, again, gives the
whole thing a sort of pre-Meatloaf sheen that I find irritating.
Nevertheless, even the worst stuff is still
interesting, in one way or another, and Nexus
certainly does not feel like the end of the road — the band is literally
bursting with ideas, good, bad, or otherwise. It's just that the audience for
these ideas is steadily dwindling: in 1974, the commercial appeal of Nexus was close to zero (way before the punk revolution), and
Ballard was no longer content to «waste his talents» by pandering to Rod's
artistic ambitions. In fact, listening to ʽThunder And Lightningʼ, you can
almost sense the man's potential dissatisfaction with how the band treated the
song — instead of concentrating on its heaviness and «thunderous» attack,
Argent keeps pushing wimpy synths, spoiling its hit potential. (Never mind the
emerging subtlety — in the mid-1970s, subtlety did not translate well into fame
and revenue).
I could be imagining things here, but facts are
facts: Ballard quit soon after the recording of Nexus, making it the last «genuine» album by Argent as a band —
the next few efforts would be completely dominated by Rod. Despite its
ambiguity and occasional cheesiness, it still gets a thumbs up. Besides, it's always fun
to encounter obscure records titled after Latin metaphorical terms. And they
did it first! Gene Harris only
released his own Nexus in 1975!
This and "Circus" are my two favorites. I can't say Argent are exactly "under" rated, but perhaps it's no exaggeration to say they are unjustly forgotten. The problem with them is that they always represented an uneasy compromise between well groomed, family friendly, hard rock and lush, smoothly executed, prog, with no grit or hard edges anywhere in sight. If they had only had the foresight to smooth down just a shade further, they might have ended up in Supertramp country, and enjoyed a career lasting well into the 80's. Nonetheless, for connoisseurs of classic 70's rock and prog, Argent may well be a treasure for hungry ears to unearth.
ReplyDeleteʽThe Coming Of Kohoutekʼ is based on an old death mass, Dies Irae, the melody is heard in the first line here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tez79PlQ5w but I have heard it more elaborated in other classical pieces, it just escaped my memory where...