Nektar

Thru the Ears is an alternate (U.S./U.K.) title for the European Best of Nektar, a two-LP compilation that pursued the band through its years of greatest success (and importance), but really arrived too late to help an already sinking ship. Both Magic Is a Child (their last album) and Man in the Moon depicted a very different band than the one which had reached such heights with "Remember the Future" and "Dream Nebula," and though the group's German origins fooled a lot of people into lumping them into the Krautrock bag, Nektar were never going to board the same bandwagon that Kraftwerk and Can had been hitched to. Nevertheless, Thru the Ears was a well-compiled drive through the band's most essential back pages, an excellent blending of the quirk and power that were always Nektar's most potent moods and, for anyone who had missed out on their albums the first time around, a welcome window into an enticing world. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide