Coming after the uniformly fine
Two's Company, 1977's
Adjoining Suites is a complete botch, an overproduced mess of an album that buries
Aztec Two-Step's best qualities in a wash of studio slickness that makes them sound like just another soft rocking piece of FM radio fodder. Vini Poncia's unsympathetic production is unpleasantly pristine, especially on the utterly anonymous single "I Wonder if We Tried." Disco-tinged drumbeats and electric piano color most of the songs, giving the record what must have been an extremely up-to-the-minute sound in the days of
Firefall, but which makes the record sound terribly dated in retrospect. Fans of cheesy '70s soft rock production and arrangements will find much to enjoy here, but anyone else is likely to be turned off. ~ Stewart Mason