Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely, Thoughtful and Innovative Offering!, July 22, 2002
For reasons I cannot explain, this album holds a special place in my heart, and listening to it reminds me of times long gone that I still hold dear. The sad and poignant refrains of "Aspen" are especially near and dear to me. So is the accompanying song of "These Days", a typical Fogelberg outing in the sense that it sensitively explores his own emotional state of being in connection to his love relationships and the events that surround him. And of course, few can write songs the way Fogelberg does at his best. The album is chock full of well written, arranged and performed numbers, from "Comes And Goes" to the title tune of "Captured Angel". Fogelberg often employs a `Phil Specter' type wall of sound approach to his music, which sometime suffers from overproduction. Yet here it all works well, and the country flavor of several of the songs, such as "Old Tennessee", "Next Time", and "Crow" are beautifully done. My favorites here are (in addition to those mentioned above) the duo-numbers of "Man In The Mirror/Below The Surface", and the haunting "The Last Nail", which is full of well-etched images and a regfretful refrain that aches and bounces inside one's head, painfully recalling one's own lost loves. This is a wonderful Fogelberg album, and one I am sure you will come to enjoy.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Follow-Up Album To Fogelberg's "Souvenirs"!, August 26, 2000
This incredible album helped to propel Dan Fogelberg's popularity in the late 1970s, and represented a terrific follow-up to his best-selling "Souvenirs". All in all, it provides terrific testimony to his talents, and proof positive of the incredible talents of one of folk-rock's most under-appreciated artists. From the stirring and dreamy opening instrumental of "Aspen" to the segue into the complex and quite accomplished lyrics of "These Days" describing today's romantic dysphoria between modern couples, this album showcases Dan's wide range of songwriting, musical, and arrangement skills. Fogelberg tends to favor a very full "wall of sound" approach to his music, and sometimes tends to somewhat overproduce arrangements by having too much going on simultaneously in his works. In this case, however, the songs are clear, crisp, and simply terrific, from "Comes And Goes" to "Captured Angel" to a memorable arrangement in "Old Tennessee" to a terrific performance of "Man In The Mirror/ Below The Surface". My favorites here are the last two songs; "The Crow" and the haunting "The Last Nail" a look back at a love gone wrong, and his regret years later about what had occurred. This is a wonderful album, folks, and a splendid example of Mr. Fogelberg's considerable skills and talents. I highly recommend it. Enjoy.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An early sign of greatness, April 14, 1999
By A Customer
What this album delivered to me was proof of the wide-ranging abilities of Dan Fogelberg. Although recorded and released after The River (I believe) it is a large leap forward in composing, lyric writing, playing, production, and musical confidence. What seized my interest over other artists was, and is, Fogelberg's do-it-all work. He writes the music, he writes the lyrics(illustrated the cover too on this album), and most of all, he plays most of the instruments. It is a hard way to make an album. John Fogerty played all the instruments and most of the vocals on his post-Credence recording Blue Ridge Rangers, but he did not compose for it, and while BRR was a breakthrough performance for him it was of much less artistic effect than Captured Angel, due to his apparent relative inexperience on pedal steel and drums. Fogelberg's mastery of every role he undertook in Captured Angel should be quickly apparent to any listener.Hearing how far Fogelberg came from The River to Captured Angel while having so much to do, is an inspiration to me. His subsequent work continued to show musical refinement and growth. BTW, if you have not seen and heard him in concert, you've missed out on a very good time. I heard him in 1977 in Kansas City in a one-man show opening for Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles; in about 1981 touring to promote High Country Snows; and about 1990 playing again a one-man acoustic show. His solo acoustical sets reveal that he is not merely a good guitarist, he is a virtuoso, and I do not use the term lightly. Often he plays as solo pieces selections that you would not necessarily think would work that way: Part of the Plan; Leader of the Band; Netherlands (on piano); Another Auld Lang Syne; Crow. When his band plays along, the music is larger and just as enjoyable. The Reach performed live is just unbelievable. Many thanks to this fine artist for the years of pleasure and enrichment he has given me.
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