Nazareth
Malice in Wonderland

The eleventh album in Nazareth's extensive catalog is also their first of the eighties. The NWBHM, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, is still in its infancy... at the time, the only direction allowed for everyone was to lean towards a commercial direction while also making at least a little room for the synthesizer, an instrument very far from the sensibilities of the four Scottish rockers but, in those years, an obligatory ingredient in any musical recipe.

Nazareth adapt to this by taking advantage of the fact that, from the previous year and album, they had expanded to a quintet by welcoming a second guitarist, Zal Cleminson, who was capable of also playing the keys of those machines that were so fashionable at the time. Zal is not a newcomer... years and years of treading the boards with the Alex Harvey Band, painted up more than a clown and with striped outfits that highlighted his lean and athletic body: it was a show to witness back then... a pity not to have had the chance. With Nazareth, none of this; Zal plays with them dressed normally. However, he is the main composer of this album and takes on the responsibility of dressing the band's hard rock with hedonistic synth snorts (here and there, fortunately only a little).

But there's not much of it here, the hard rock... the album is one of their quieter ones. This is contributed by the chosen producer, Jeff Baxter, formerly of Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers, who certainly ranks as a guitar god but not as a metalhead.

Selecting the most successful pieces, immediately here's "Holiday," a rock'n'roll piece meant to break the ice. You can immediately feel the precision work of the producer on the group's music, which historically tended to be straightforward. There is much more care in the choirs, for example, and a Def Leppard-style chorus (who at that time hadn't even made their recording debut, mind you). The guys are made to play and sing much better than usual, resulting in a radio-friendly sound that comes at the expense of their rawness and straightforwardness, so de gustibus at this point.

"One of the Boys" is a further emblem of what has just been said: it features excellent vocal work (lots of them) and acoustic guitars that, alternating with the electric ones kept on a leash by the mix, make the track very dynamic and kaleidoscopic, rich although not abrasive.

"Fast Cars" is even sweetened by a widespread use of vibraphone, and Baxter makes the rough Dan McCafferty sing as well as he will never again in his career! From this episode, but also from many others, it can be gathered that one is listening to a cleaned-up version of our guys, but also well filled with melodic and harmonic "hooks." Suffice it to say that in "Big Boy" there is a decidedly reggae rhythm, and in the middle, an imperious sax solo imposes itself! It's just music in the California style, with omnipresent guitars but always muzzled, dozens of vocal tracks, instruments arriving and departing continuously, with different and ever-changing timbres.

But there's never a risk, I mean never a disappointment, for the simple and fundamental reason that the melodic and arrangement quality is high. It's just strange that all this comes from Nazareth!

The track I'm most attached to is the penultimate one, "Ship of Dreams," due to a heavenly chiseling work of the acoustic guitars from beginning to end, especially in the long instrumental interlude, which again recalls the style of Wishbone Ash.

Poor Manny (Manuel Charlton, the guitarist and founder), Baxter doesn't let him play a solo throughout the album. Or maybe he didn't have the spirit to engage, watched from behind the control room glass by one of the best guitarists in the world... However, his instrument, along with Zal's, constantly embroiders throughout the album. And embroidering is an awkward verb for the classic image one has of Nazareth.

For me, it is one of their best works, but I am biased: I adore, for example, Toto, Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers, Little Feat, all that circle between Los Angeles and San Francisco that has the habit of always sounding GOOD, and the fact that this punch of Scotsmen has joined their high-class moods for once does not bother me at all.

Darn, on "Malice in Wonderland" Nazareth practically sound like Peter Frampton (do you remember)!? There, I've found the right reference to finally wrap up this review—I could have done without writing all those lines before this last sentence.