Larry Norman - In Another Land: The Missing Pieces

Reviewed by Tim Holden

'In Another Land' became a classic album almost as soon as it was released 30 years ago and listening to it again for the first time in over 20 years it still is a classic. This re-issue is the album is supposedly as it was originally intended to be released. Larry wrote some incredible songs with hard hitting lyrics that still stand up today with their heads held high. Gems like "The Rock That Didn't Roll", "UFO", "Song For A Small Circle Of Friends", "Six Sixty Six", "Righteous Rocker #3", "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" and "I Am A Servant" have all stood the test of time and still sound fresh and vital today. As it turns out, the "missing pieces" are, in the main, not here! The song "Looking For The Footprints" was cut by Word from the 1976 release because it sounded Middle Eastern (and therefore Satanic!) but it turned up on the 1991 Spark CD issue and subsequent CD issues as a bonus track. The only track making its first appearance on CD is "Top 40 Survey" (though even that appeared on a 1998 Phydeaux special edition cassette version of 'In Another Land') and as that track is a mix of tape loops with music from Elvis, Dylan, Hendrix, the Beatles and new footage featuring Martin Luther Kind, the Kennedy assassination, etc, it's far from essential. As it turns out, we still don't have a definitive version of this classic album available.