ANIMAL NOTES

The second Crack the Sky album finds them leaning a little harder on their art rock side and a touch less on their progressive rock aspects compared to their debut album. It's a fine distinction, I'll grant you, but put it this way: I can imagine them supporting Steely Dan, Bowie, or Peter Gabriel with this material more than I can imagine them supporting Genesis or Jethro Tull (though they could still fit well on a bill with Kansas). That said, they aren't completely un-proggy - Rangers At Midnight has a long duration and a somewhat more conventional song structure, and seems to be the designated prog-aligned track here, just as A Sea Epic was on their first album. Good, but precisely because it feels like a slightly less adventurous retread of their first album it doesn't quite hit the same highs as that original release.