This is my 7th Nektar review for TPA and 9th overall, if you count my old DPRP reviews. That’s how committed I am to charting the tale of Nektar, in whatever haphazard order the reissues will come. This time around, Esoteric gives the deluxe three-disc treatment to the band’s seventh album, Magic Is a Child, originally recorded and released in 1977 after the band had relocated to New Jersey. The band had moved there because they’d found improbable success with the Americans over the Europeans, who were growing weary of prog rock and embracing disco.
A blow to the band came when founder and lead singer Roye Albrighton left the group in December 1976 to pursue a solo career, forcing them to select a new guitarist and frontman. In the liner notes, bassist Derek “Mo” Moore explains that they held a large number of auditions, but Dave Nelson blew them away and was instantly integrated into the band. This new line-up entered the studio the following year to produce new music, but would they be chasing the long-form glory of Remember the Future and Recycled, or the short-form tidbits of Down to Earth?
Given the year this was recorded, the answer should be no surprise. With Nelson in the hot seat instead of Albrighton, the band’s DNA was undeniably altered, while their time in the States had left them… well, Americanised, to some degree. This would show up either through cultural references such as Eerie Lackawanna (a reference to the contemporary Erie Lackawanna railway that had just become defunct) or musically; the final track, Spread Your Wings is indebted more to Southern rock and country, and is an uncomfortable departure from their signature prog sound.
But another American reference comes in the decidedly proggy opening track, Away from Asgard. “Oh lord,” I thought, “not another prog song about Middle Earth.” But I was mistaken, because Asgard is not a Tolkien invention, but refers to Thor’s homeland. In the archival recordings included with this set, Mo introduces the song by referring to the Marvel comics; the Phoenix crowd seemed nonplussed. I’ll agree, it’s not any less nerdy than Lord of the Rings.
It’s an interesting opener for the record. While their direction seems to shift from place to place all over the record, the fast-paced fanfare of the intro combined with the high-tone bass and synthesisers shows that the band are still waving the prog flag high, and wish to be recognised as such. I’ve seen a lot of albums from this era bury their more adventurous offerings deep on the second side while proffering a more radio-friendly single first, so I have to commend Nektar for this, even if the track itself is a little too earnest (and nerdy) for my liking. I’d honestly characterise this track as an early contender for the contentious ‘neo-prog’ genre, as it has that feel to it.
On the title track, which follows the opener, Nektar do away with drums and introduce a harpsichord for a folkier, more melancholic tune that reflects the album’s cover. I was surprised and conflicted to learn that the girl featured clasping a ball of light was none other than Brooke Shields, one of the most prominent child models of the time. She was recently the subject of a 2023 documentary (Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields), which drew attention to the exploitation she had gone through as a child star, particularly when she acted in the 1978 film Pretty Baby. All of this makes me uneasy regarding the cover, which shows a lot of bare leg, as well as the blown-up picture of her face that was used as the vinyl paper sleeve. And why is she flying diagonally out of a rocky pool anyway?
The track itself is pretty dreary, repetitive and unadventurous, but I began to enjoy it ironically when I realised how facile the lyrics of the chorus are:
Magic is imagination, the child is alive.”
They just switched the nouns, and that’s it.
The next three tracks, Eerie Lackawanna, Midnite Lite and Love to Share (Keep Your Worries Behind You) fall vaguely into the prog-lite category and are titillating without generating much satisfaction. Musical tributes can be found like easter eggs; Midnite Lite features the line “A waterfall, so magical,” which feels like a nod to Firth of Fifth by Genesis, while Love to Share (Keep Your Worries Behind You) sounds a lot like She Said She Said by the Beatles whenever the subtitle is sung.
When I’d just about given up on the album ever being good, the band surprised me with the second side. Train from Nowhere feels distinctively more like classic Nektar, with tight verses interrupted by little proggy fills. For the instrumental, they delve into a dark psychedelic tunnel of proggery before emerging positively on the other side as if nothing ever happened. In the bonus tracks, you can hear an alternate version of the track that features none other than Robert Fripp (who was given the alias Walt Nektroid here). If you’re expecting to hear distinctive Fripp licks on the guitar, think again; this version sounds largely like the studio version except that the instrumental (the best bit) is obscured by Frippertronics that give it more of a dream-like feel. These would be okay if you could still hear the instrumental, but at points it is barely audible. Mo wanted to keep this on the record, perhaps in awe of the prog idol, but thankfully he was outvoted, and the Frippertronics were discarded on the final product.
Next up, Listen, the album’s longest and spaciest track at six minutes. It’s the only track on the album to feature the absent Albrighton as a writing credit and was also used to audition his replacement, signalling its importance in the album’s tracklisting. Once again, that classic Nektar feel is there, even if the track is a little shapeless. Mo reveals that the band ingeniously recorded the track live, then stripped it back to only the drums, and then slowed that track down to play along to, giving the drums a lot more weight and depth. This technique is similar to how the Beatles recorded Rain a decade earlier, but it’s still a brilliant technique and so subtle here that I wouldn’t have noticed if Mo hadn’t spelled it out.
On the Run is an impressive penultimate song featuring plenty of interplay between Mo and Ron Howden doing successive rolls on the toms. The ‘working man’ theme hits hard and feels more relatable than Away from Asgard. And then, lastly, the afore-mentioned Spread Your Wings, which leaves the listener in AOR territory, but you can still have fun if you accept that this won’t blow your mind.
To accompany the album, Esoteric serves up a host of early versions (which aren’t remarkably different from the studio tracks but are nice to have for completeness) and two discs of live concerts. The first was recorded at Hofstra University on New York’s Long Island and was broadcast live on the radio and has been recycled (pardon the pun) from the 2014 2CD reissue of this album by Cleopatra records. Since this concert was intended for broadcast, the audio quality is significantly better than the recording from Phoenix, Arizona, a month later whilst on their tour to support the album.
As expected, the setlist for each is roughly the same, but as well as better sound, the Hofstra set also includes the first side of Recycled, giving it the clear advantage over Phoenix. I wasn’t sure how much of the new album Nektar were going to include, but across both live recordings, only one new track isn’t featured: Love to Share (Keep Your Worries Behind You).
I was a bit surprised by this extreme focus on new material; surely the group knew what fans loved most about the group? Surely they were somewhat aware that Magic Is a Child was nowhere near as good as their earlier classics? But perhaps the split with Roye had really shaken the group, and they were there to promote their new identity, as well as that new album, which they needed to be a success. One can hardly imagine the current line-up of Nektar doing a Magic Is a Child heavy concert… or perhaps that’s just the sort of thing they would do, as a joke.
Whatever qualms I had about the setlist, though, I was still enjoying it. On both sets, the group do a seamless transition from Train from Nowhere to Remember the Future, Part Two, landing at my favourite part of the song and taking it from there. The band continue to pay homage to the Albrighton era with Cryin’ in the Dark and King of Twilight from A Tab in the Ocean, before a surprise performance of Oh Willy. I was especially surprised by that because there had been no live performance of that on the Down to Earth box set, and I presumed the band had simply forgotten about that track. The Down to Earth set proves that Nektar didn’t always focus so much on material from their latest album (and in fact would often play music that had not yet been released), which makes the setlist choices on Magic Is a Child seem somewhat baffling.
Mo’s liner notes, coupled with the raucous live performances, help give the listener context for this transitional album, but the issue remains that the material is weak overall. I’m not trying to be mean to the band here; with Albrighton’s abrupt departure, prog’s decline in popularity and a huge American cultural shift, it’s remarkable that the album is as good as it is, but it still falls far short of the band’s glory days. That would make it tough for me, as a money-conscious consumer, to want to pay for an expansive three-disc box set dedicated to it, where two of those discs feature similar live setlists. Without a cheaper, single-disc version available, this one seems to be for Nektar completists only.
TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE: Magic Is a Child
01. Away from Asgard (5:33)
02. Magic Is a Child (4:07)
03. Eerie Lackawanna (3:32)
04. Midnite Lite (4:29)
05. Love to Share (Keep Your Worries Behind You) (4:07)
06. Train from Nowhere (4:14)
07. Listen (6:04)
08. On the Run (The Trucker) (4:43)
09. Spread Your Wings (4:55)
~ Bonus tracks:
10. Away from Asgard (demo) (6:21)
11. On the Run (The Trucker) (alternate mix) (4:37)
12. Listen (early version) (6:03)
13. Train from Nowhere (featuring Robert Fripp) (4:14)
14. Silver Lady (live Northampton, MA 1977) (9:24)
Time – 72:19
DISC TWO: Live at Hofstra University, Long Island, 8th October 1977
01. Midnite Lite (5:24)
02. Train from Nowhere (3:35)
03. Remember the Future, Part Two (9:26)
04. Away from Asgard (5:22)
05. Cryin’ in the Dark / King of Twilight (12:11)
06. Magic Is a Child (4:13)
07. Recycled (12:10)
08. Eerie Lackawanna/Oh Willy (11:50)
09. On the Run (The Trucker) (4:52)
10. Spread Your Wings (6:02)
Time – 75:01
DISC THREE: Live at the Community Theatre, Phoenix, 9th November 1977
01. Train from Nowhere (4:21)
02. Remember the Future, Part Two (11:14)
03. Midnite Lite (4:27)
04. Listen (6:39)
05. Cryin’ in the Dark / King of Twilight (13:31)
06. Magic Is a Child (4:48)
07. Away from Asgard (5:57)
08. Eerie Lackawanna (3:17)
09. Oh Willy (9:58)
10. Spread Your Wings (6:50)
Time – 70:56
Total Time – 3:38:16
MUSICIANS
Dave Nelson – Guitar, Lead & Backing Vocals
Alan “Taff” Freeman – Keyboards (including synthesiser), Backing Vocals
Derek “Mo” Moore – Bass, Lead & Backing Vocals
Ron Howden – drums, percussion, Lead & Backing Vocals, Smurds
~ With:
Julien Barber, Kermit Moore, Michael Commins, Anthony Posk – String Quartet
Larry Fast – Synthesiser, Programming, Processing
Walt Nektroid (Robert Fripp) – Guitar (Disc 1, track 13)
Jeffrey Kawalek – Production, Engineering, Backing Vocal (Disc 1, track 5)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Esoteric Recordings | Cherry Red Records
Catalogue#: ECLEC 32943
Country of Origin: UK/USA
Date of Release: 26th June 2026
LINKS
Nektar – Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Boxset info at Cherry Red Records
