Six

After Fifth, saxophonist Elton Dean left Soft Machine and was replaced by Karl Jenkins of Nucleus. Jenkins would gradually assume a leading role in the band, steering its musical direction.
If I recall correctly, Mike Ratledge mentioned in an interview that this moment in time was the point when his enthusiasm for Soft Machine began to fade, a shift that’s noticeable in how subdued his contributions are on this album.

I’m not particularly fond of the live portion of the album, ... read more

Although I love the literal soft machine on the album cover, this is always a pretty painful experience to go through for me. Once Wyatt leaves the band the quality of playing doesn;t change so much as everythign becomes too peppy. 'Third' sounds very colourful but with any underlying mystery and moodiness gone the saturation becomes too bright, like a bag of haribo.

This may be one of the seminal Canterbury albums but for me the whimsy is overwhelming and tedious, although I do respect the ... read more