Search - Firefall :: Undertow / Clouds Across the Sun

Nice twofer, but know what you're getting

Bill Janowski | Elmhurst, IL USA | 04/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you can still find Rhino's separate reissue of Undertow, pick that up as well - it has 3 bonus tracks not found here.



But since this twofer is the only place you can find 'Clouds Across The Sun,' it's still not a bad bet.

"

A Schizophrenic Pairing

Kevin Wilson | St. Louis, MO | 06/02/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Apparently the music that's popular when you were in high school and college becomes the music of your life. Commercial radio is built on this principle, that when you're 14 to 21 years old you're open to new music. That interest gradually wanes until, like Homer Simpson says, you decide that music achieved perfection in 1974. For me, it was 1977. (And yes, that includes some disco-era music.)



If, like me, you're a fan of Firefall's first three albums: Firefall, Luna Sea, and Elan (which squeaks by even though it came out in 1978), you may be disappointed by their next two releases. This double album CD comprises Undertow and Clouds across the Sun, both of which curiously came out in 1980. Nevertheless, they sound like they came from two different bands. There's enough of the original Firefall sound in the Undertow cuts (including the best modern use of the flute this side of Jethro Tull) that you may find something to like. Nothing to compare with "Strange Way", "You Are the Woman", "Mexico" or "Cinderella", but still that familiar haunting, country-rock ballad sound.



Clouds across the Sun, on the other hand, could have come from any of a dozen 80's bands that succumbed to the lure of electronics: synthesizers and drum machines and so forth that made everything sound, well, "80-ish". There's very little to recommend about the tracks from Clouds, unless you're a few years older than me and music achieved perfection in 1980."