The astonishing success of
Crack the Sky's eponymous first album raised expectations that the band was never able to fulfill for the rest of their career. Critics and audiences alike delighted in the wry, intelligent lyrics, complex and powerful progressive rock, and carefully crafted harmonies. Radio programmers were more ambivalent. Songs like "Ice," "She's a Dancer," and "Surf City" all got nationwide airplay, though none actually became a real hit. All of them deserved more attention, but the label never focused their promotional efforts on any one of them, and as a result there was no hit single. (Shades of
Moby Grape's first album.) Rolling Stone's designation of
Crack the Sky as "Album of the Year" for 1975 helped did as much as anything the record company did, and in retrospect their award was well-deserved. The album still holds up very well, especially the delirious "A Sea Epic," one of the rare examples of a driving and complex progressive rock song with a really good sense of humor. Three years and two albums later, when
Crack the Sky did a live album, most of the songs were from this album. They obviously knew where their best material was and played to their strengths. Highly recommended.