The album title is not just there for kicks; the band actually recorded it in a Marblehead, Massachusetts studio (with George Martin in the producer's chair), and it was expected to break them on a large-scale level, but instead, the breakthrough never materialized, and the band quickly fell back into obscurity. Once you hear the album, you begin to understand why. The second try with the Kulberg/Roberts/Rowan/Greene/Baskin alliance, and this time around, they try to make it more palatable to then-listening audiences. It sounds clearer than ever before, and you know this is roots-fusion done with class, professionalism, and intent - yet, the elements which made Seatrain stand out in the first place have been relegated to background status by now. The only place where the real all-star of the band, Richard Greene, gets to show-off is on the album ender, "Despair Tire", which is really nothing more than an extended joke of a track for him to solo and riff on. A fairly entertaining joke, mind you, but it's a joke all the same. Everywhere else you are confronted with decent, yet meandering FM-friendly efforts credited to either the Kulberg-Roberts team, Peter Rowan, or Baskin. All of them are decent, none of them are bad, but nothing ever rises to the level of impressive. One thing I should mention here is they trot "As I Lay Losing" from the debut album out of the archives, but frame it under the title "Losing All the Years", and it contains none of the manic, on-the-edge energy which marked the version heard on the debut record. I find it difficult to call this a disappointing experience, because there were indications of this in the album before this one, but certainly, the heart, soul, and adventurous spirit of Seatrain is barely in evidence. The surprising thing is, Rowan and Greene would leave after this album, and Kulberg would soldier on for one more record under the Seatrain moniker (which I do not have) called Watch, with a completely different lineup.
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