One Way Glass

The second album by Manfred Mann's Earth Band to be released in 1972, Glorified Magnified is as solid a heavy rock album as you're likely to find from that era, and it still holds up three decades later, mostly because these guys are smarter than the music they're playing and don't mind indulging their taste as well as their dexterity. They can romp and stomp through "Meat" or "I'm Gonna Have You All," complete with a slashing guitar solo by Mick Rogers on the latter, or throw in a synthesizer interlude by Mann on "One Way Glass" that's so quietly and carefully executed as to be worthy of a classical piece – and not skip a beat doing it.

The second album by Manfred Mann's Earth Band to be released in 1972, Glorified Magnified is as solid a heavy rock album as you're likely to find from that era, and it still holds up three decades later, mostly because these guys are smarter than the music they're playing and don't mind indulging their taste as well as their dexterity. They can romp and stomp through "Meat" or "I'm Gonna Have You All," complete with a slashing guitar solo by Mick Rogers on the latter, or throw in a synthesizer interlude by Mann on "One Way Glass" that's so quietly and carefully executed as to be worthy of a classical piece – and not skip a beat doing it.

'Then and Now' just about justifies its 4 star rating if only because of the unseen early band footage and all too rare Manfred Mann interviews, both then and now!
Not so much a career retrospective as flash back to the beginning of the Earth Band circa 72 and a flash forward to current times, 'Then and Now' has its moments but would have been bolstered with some bonus footage of both Chris Thompson and the late Steve Waller, who were important mainstays in the band; that said, there's an accompanying CD box set reviewed elsewhere.

Released in a cardboard sleeve with German magazine "eclipsed" nr. 210 Mai 2019.