Album Review

Dan LeRoy [allmusic.com]

On a Blue Wing is the last of the four (counting the American compilation Vistamix) vocal, relatively mainstream albums guitar iconoclast Bill Nelson made during the first half of the '80s. Like most of those recordings, Nelson plays most of the instruments, accompanied by a few key collaborators (his saxophonist brother Ian and bassist Iain Denby, in particular), and the sound continues to explore the vaguely oriental techno-pop that fascinated contemporaries such as Japan and Gary Numan. Not quite as sharp as The Love That Whirls or the Vistamix material -- a few of the songs succumb to the synthetic stasis that sometimes marked Nelson's instrumental work -- this collection still contains several examples of the auteur at his best, transforming and elevating possible chart entries like ''Heart and Soul'' with an exotic and spiritual romanticism that owes more to dead poets than pop stars. A bonus is that, while in this post-Red Noise period Nelson largely swore off guitar solos, ''The Hidden Flame'' finds him reaching for his axe with real fire. [On a Blue Wing is actually a resequenced and repackaged version of Getting the Holy Ghost Across, a title that Portrait thought would create further difficulties for Nelson in America.]