Despite my frequent disparaging of Mr. Dan Fogelberg, here I am holding on to another one of his records. This album is rather inconsistent in terms of song quality, with a fair amount of the kind of boring soft rock that I most readily associate with him ("Gypsy Wind," "The Last to Know"). But on the other hand, he pulls off some decent, 'harder' rock songs like "Phoenix" and "Face the Fire" (though both are overlong). I think I like the more rocking tracks because really, my main problem with Fogelberg is his wishy-washy 70s singer/songwriter vocal tone that makes his slower songs induce narcolepsy. He is capable of writing a decent melody, but then often loses the emotional pull of the melody with his bland singing. So on a song by song basis, I'm still not entirely sure if this album is worth keeping, but I found myself impressed by the obvious care put into the arrangements of each song as well as the overall flow and presentation of the album as a whole. I guess that's why I always like to give records a chance.
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