I personally really liked this. Apparently Soft Machine decided to go even jazzier from Third with this one. Which is a good thing, but also it's biggest flaw. I liked it a lot but it lacks a lot of the really distinguishing characteristics that the earlier albums(Namely Soft Machine II) had. However, with that said, this is the only real flaw, and it's a damn good album none-the-less.
I especially liked the extended final track. Albeit not traditionally a Jazz band I feel Soft Machine puts out what is a damn fantastic jazz album that might not be up to the very best efforts of say, Miles Davis, but generally comparable to some of the works of most of even the better jazz masters.
Only thing that notches this away from being perfect is the fact it lacks the distinctiveness of other earlier Soft Machine works.
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