Return to Forever - No Mystery (1975 Japanese Polydor Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: VG+
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: None

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Return to Forever - No Mystery | Vinyl LP - 1975 Japanese Polydor (MP 2470, Polydor K.K.)

Return to Forever had existed in different configurations since 1971. By January 1975 the quartet of Corea, Clarke, White and Di Meola had been together for about six months. No Mystery was their second studio album with this lineup, recorded quickly following a tour that had taken the previous album, Where Have I Known You Before, to the pop Top 40.

Side A distributes the writing across the band. Clarke opens with "Dayride," the most immediately accessible piece on the record and the one that most clearly demonstrates the group's collective tightness. "Jungle Waterfall" follows, Clarke and Corea sharing the credit. Di Meola's "Flight of the Newborn" is the longest piece on Side A, seven minutes, the guitarist building from a clean-toned intro through two substantial solos while Clarke takes a soulful bass feature mid-piece. "Sofistifunk" is White's, drum-led and dense with synthesizer. "Excerpt from the First Movement of Heavy Metal" is credited to all four members, two and a half minutes that functions as a transitional closer to the side.

Side B belongs to Corea. "No Mystery" is the album's most lyrical piece, an acoustic piano statement over White's marimba, a melody that sits apart from the electric weight of much of Side A. "Interplay" runs two minutes and connects the title track to the fourteen-minute "Celebration Suite," which Corea wrote in two continuous parts with Bartók and Spanish classical harmony audible in the structure alongside the band's fusion vocabulary. Di Meola takes the Suite's most extended solo.