Consumer Guide Album

Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Solar Fire [Polydor, 1974]
As this group moves closer to the jazzy style it no doubt covets, it begins to show the corners of its rhythmic box. As well as minimal self-knowledge--Mann's strength has always been song interpretation, after all. You think that's why this album has no writer's credits, not even for a familiar-sounding extravaganza called (here) "Father of Day, Father of Night"? I bet they wrote this silly stuff themselves. Ah, self-expression. C+