Customer Reviews

Reach for the Sky

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This album, the band's first for Arista, marked the start of the Brothers downhill slide artistically. Arista deserves some of the blame -- it wanted another Doobie Brothers -- but there are still plenty of very good moments here, such as Hell & High Water (a great autobiographical song of the band's history), Angeline and a typically high-quality Dickey Betts intrumental, From The Madness Of The West. Reach For The Sky certainly couldn't equal what came before (or after, in the 1990s), but it's still a keeper album for me.

Many critics have bashed this recording as a far cry from the Duane Allman era Allman Brothers Band. Whereas the band did try to imitate the Doobie Brothers and other corporate rock acts on this collection, there are certainly some highlights here.

I like the gospel feel of the opening track, Hell And High Water. Greg and Dickie sound great singing together on this track. Its very reminiscing of sharing old times. From The Madness Of The West is an intriguing instrumental with a nice percussion/drum solo in the middle. Mystery Woman and Angeline are catchy radio friendly tunes.

Maybe not quite on the level of Brothers and Sisters or Idlewide South but there are enough good moments to warrant a three and a half star rating.

Compare this to "Fillmore East" "Eat a Peach" and their best works and it is going to come up short- no question. But compare it to the work of most other bands and this still comes up smelling like a rose. Dickey gets off a good instrumental in "From the Madness of the West" and Gregg's 7 minute composition "So Long" is a really great number. There are some songs not up to the usual Allmans standard here but there's still some very good stuff here. 3.5 stars.

This album is better than all these ABB snobs say it is. Yea, maybe it's not as good as Eat A Peach, but there are some catchy little numbers that stand up well. Hell and Highwater, Angeline,and Mystery Woman are all good songs. Give this album a chance, you won't be disappointed.

This is not the Allman Brother's of the Fillmore fame- but the ABB of the Arista years. First thing first- Reach for the Sky is the weakest of all ABB albums. It is just swamped by the dreaded synthesizer, suffers from poor songs and a lack of guitars. Best cut is the instramental "From the Madness of the West" which previews the triple drum drum section of today's ABB. Brothers of the Road is much stronger effort, but still suffers from Arista quest to turn the ABB into the Dobbie Brothers. This album reminds me of more a Gregg Solo/Dickey Solo album than a ABB album. But if you like Gregg's/Dickey's solo stuff, you might like this.

Coming as it did on the heels of the band's successful return on Enlightened Rogues, it's unfortunate that Reach For The Sky is so disappointing. I have not listened to the album in many years -- in fact, I still have only a vinyl version -- and so I thought this would be as good a time as any to give it another try. My apologies to the other reviewers who feel the album deserves better than it gets, but I have to respectfully disagree. The album is slick and over-produced. As noted in my review title, synthesizers on an Allman Brothers Band album??!! Are you kidding me? And Dickey is listed as playing synthesizer! Neither Dickey's nor Dan Toler's guitar playing is all that original. There is no grit in any of the playing and no fire in the performances. The final cut, So Long, starts out like a 1980s MOR (middle of the road) tune before it starts moving just a little bit. To my ears, this sounds like a Southern rock band that is trying -- and failing -- to sound like the Allman Brothers Band.

The Allman Brothers create a sold collection of songs. The sound is still distinctive. It is not "Eat A Peach",
but it is not suppose to be. "From The Madness of the West" is great little instrumental, as good as "Pegasus" and "Hell And High Water", "Mystery Woman" and "Angeline" are real solid numbers.

The two Arista Records albums are the weak links in the Allman Brothers Band catalog. Reach For The Sky (1980) has a few good moments, but it's nothing to write home about. I do like Angeline, though. Gregg's vocals are great on that one. Hell And High Water features shout-and-answer co-lead vocals from Gregg and Dickey, and From The Madness Of The West is a fair to middling Dickey Betts instrumental. Get this to complete your ABB collection, but their other albums are much better.

This 1980 release from the masters of the blues jam features some pretty good songs, and a more polished commercial sound, but lacks the fire that once made them truly great. It opens with the gospel-tinged "Hell and High Water" with both Greg Allman and Dicky Betts alternately singing lyrics of determination and hope. Greg follows with the groovin' pop number "Mystery Woman" - a little more "pop" than we're used to from ABB, but the bridge shows there's still heat in those embers. "From the Madness of the West" is a pretty decent entry into the Betts instrumental category - yes, he's still got nimble fingers, but... maybe we've just heard this kind of thing too many times from this band. The touches of synthesizer don't help, either; they feel out of place on this recording. "I Got a Right to Be Wrong" is a bit of country rock; think Black Crows with a dobro. "Angeline" and "Keep on Keepin' On" are both pretty strong numbers for Greg's voice, even though he didn't write either of them. "Famous Last Words" is perhaps the weakest track, a rather forgettable Betts number. "So Long" is a spine-tinglingly beautiful closer, a ballad slightly reminiscent of "Melissa".

This outing isn't as strong as "Brothers and Sisters" and certainly nowhere near the majesty of their Fillmore East live set, but I come back to this release again and again and find I can still enjoy it for what it is, without regard for what ABB used to be capable of. Three and half stars.

The folks who are slamming these 2 fine recordings just don't seem to understand the situation for a major recording artist.During this time period everyone in the business knew about the band's inner tumoils and so they were a risk. Therefore the band, in order to get a deal had to try to make hits that teen agers would buy.These recordings don't have some of the excellence of their earlier stuff, but it is still some damn fine music. If you like the Allman's, you'll like this c.d.