Despite the more complex arrangements and varied lyrics of this album, it's somehow not as satisfying as their debut. Songs meant to sound grand simply sound pompous -- a charge often (and tiresomely) leveled at prog bands, but warranted at times here. Similarly, Dane tries hard to shake his
Jon Anderson label, but the overenunciated and mannered style that he adopts instead is grating; the result often veers fearfully close to Styx. There are some successful tracks, though -- the pleasant interpolation of a children's choir and carousel organ in "Crusade," the soaring guitar solos on "Painters Clouds," and the pensive woodwinds and piano in the long instrumental intro of the album's high point, "Left to Find." ~ Paul Collins