Review:

on 2011-06-06 CharlesMartel Said:

This is not my type of music. I have to admit it, I own it, yes, but this is not what I would normally listen to. Too much of this is sentimental tripe which just gets cloyingly sickeningly sweet. A man and his guitar never usually got this mundane. Dan Fogelberg may safely lay claim to be one of the forgotten men of American folk-rock and on this offering I can quite understand why. When he turns on the sentimentality, man it flows in bucket loads. Having said that, he has the perfect voice for this sort of material. It is just that this sort of material has virtually no impact on me.

I guess you have to be a particular type of person to like this. I have a friend who adores it. But he is an American, hailing from Texas and occasionally Arkansas. He tells longingly of the time he and a group of friends met with Dan Fogelberg and smoked a few joints with him down by the river one evening while Fogelberg strummed away on his guitar. Moments like that make music. If I had his memories I would probably think the world of this album too. I don't have those personal recollections, so I don't get the same vibe from it. Yet my reason for buying it at all is closely related to personal recollections of my own, so perhaps I shouldn't be overly critical.

Joe Walsh gets a credit on this. What he did I do not know (probably turned up, poured the coffee and made the grits I expect, as there's precious little evidence of his guitar work being used here). There really is nothing on here which could be pointed to as being contributed by Joe Walsh. This adds to the disappointment. If he had added a bit more of the guitar work he might have put a bit of punch into what is generally a pretty lacklustre collection of songs. As it is, his particular style probably did not suit the sugary style of Fogelberg enough for him to have made a major impact.

Of the songs themselves there is rather little to talk about. "There's a Place in the World for a Gambler" is a passable track which slowly builds up from quiet beginnings. "Illinois" is well-written and comes closest of the also-rans to breaking out of the mold Fogelberg has made in which to encase most of the material on this album. Most of the rest are just irritating and unimaginative, best left to the ears of that select group of people who find entertainment in the tannoys of lifts and shopping centres on a Saturday afternoon. One major problem is Fogelberg's voice. He lacks the power in it to sing anything above a gentle lilt, and when he tries something with a little power, the voice comes out as being little better than a strangled whisper. This is perhaps exemplified best by "(Someone's Been) Telling You Stories" which could have been a reasonable song in the hands of a more dynamic vocalist.

So why do I have it? Well, the real reason is that I once heard a friend of mine playing "As the Raven Flies" on a beach before a crowd of people in the Sinai Desert one hot summer evening and just fell in love with the song. His acoustic version sounded better than the track on the album but it is so long ago that I heard it that I couldn't vouch for it. Of course, it could just be the memories leading me on. Either way, If it weren't for that track, I would not give this album a second look.
Rating: 5/10