Lisnaholic

If you think Prog Rock is about self-indulgent rock bands experimenting with grandiose classical effects or incomprehensible jazz, then you might not recognise Mu as being Prog Rock at all.This is more like Grateful Dead than ELP, with a collection of well-crafted, unpretentious songs that stay rooted in rock, but are innovative enough to be consistently interesting.

As we`d expect from Jeff Cotton, there is a lot of tight and tasty slide guitar work, sometimes funky, sometimes trickier to follow. As Anteater suggests, I think the only departure from a conventional rock band lineup is the bonus of Jeff Cotton on saxophone, which is held back until halfway through the third track, where it suddenly comes in as a very welcome surprise.

Eternal Thirst is an extraordinary track that makes me wish that Mu had pushed the envelope and experimented a bit more elsewhere on the album. There are two short instrumental tracks, for instance, which imo could`ve easily gone on much longer. A personal first-impression favourite is The Ballad of Brother Lew with it`s off-beat story and intriguing lyrics. Speaking of lyrics,the words to Nobody Wants To Shine, which includes the exhortation," Look at the sun ... Brother we are one ", although well-meaning enough, sound a little dated today. But that is not true of the album in general; it`s a great album and a pleasure to listen to - thanks Anteater.