Frankly, it's terrible, just not all-time terrible. But they came back sounding closer to Michael Bolton than even mid-80's Jefferson Starship, never mind any era of Jefferson Airplane. When I listen to this, I catch myself thinking this was some kind of bad karaoke parody version of the group.
Of course the Dead choose the late 1980's to finally make their move from underground cult group to mainstream pop stars! And with a record that's not marginally better than previous studio efforts, except..."Touch of Grey". For the first time in a while, we got a defining statement from Jerry and the Dead, and a natural side effect was deserved chart success! But seriously, one of the few songs in their catalog that encapsulated their essence, like no other. There's not much else good I can say about this one. The Weir and Mydland tracks are especially irritating this go-round, and the rest of the Garcia-Hunter material is so-so. They stretched the material out as well, which works great on "Touch of Grey", not so great everywhere else. Still, it had been a while since the Dead had this much pep to their sound.
Honestly, this was so interchangeable with Reckoning it was laughable. This despite a few change of pace inclusions, like "Rhythm Devils", "Space", and an somnambulant version of "Friend of the Devil". But between these two records, that's eight sides of music, and I hope you have nothing better to do for a long afternoon of very laid back Dead live music.
I guess it's a slight improvement over the debacle that was the previous record, but that's like saying an overcast day got a little less gloomier. Some of this material was decent middle-of-the-road hard rock, but as you got into it the syrup came on thick. If you're of the "yacht rock" persuasion you might like this, otherwise one or two listens should suffice.
