SAFETY IN NUMBERS

Though it opens strong with Nuclear Apathy - one of Crack the Sky's more prog-inclined numbers - things go downhill fast, with Long Nights providing a half-baked AORish ballad and Flashlight rooted in a tepid imitation of funk. Behind the scenes lineup changes saw the departure of Joe Palumbo early on in the recording process, and though he would return eventually, he didn't come back in time to save this album from stumbling onto the market with Gary Lee Chappell doing an alright but somewhat bland job on vocals.

There also seems to have been a shortfall on the songwriting side, where Palumbo had previously carried a lot of the weight. The three tracks with compositional contributions from him actually lead off the album, and the remaining pieces feel underwhelming in comparison - and since I only really have time for Nuclear Apathy, that's a pretty bad sign.