The differences are obvious between this and other (earlier) Mahavishnu albums: Jan Hammer and Billy Cobham are gone, Jean-Luc Ponty has arrived, George Martin (the fifth Beatle) produces, and it features the freakin' London Symphony Orchestra! Two orchestras at once, eh? Well it opens up pretty symphonically and traditionally until you realize the lead violin (Ponty) is playing through a wah-wah pedal. Then the band comes in and before you know it John McLaughlin is doing what he does best: shredding his natural ass off. It gets from point A to point B so smoothly I didn't even notice the transition from delicate finger-picked nylon strings to white-hot electric licks, but it happened somewhere. Then the funk kicks in. The album is good from start to finish, not their best album by any means (and I REALLY miss cobham and Hammer) but it's still interesting throughout. There's even an operatic song with vocals by the new female keyboard player! And having a full orchestra really amps up the epicness of the Mahavishnu sound, with grand gestures and microfunk rhythms alike being nailed by the string section. I think I even heard a choir passage or two, but I might have been tripping again.
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