This album, the band's first for Arista, marked the start of the Brothers downhill slide artistically. Arista deserves some of the blame -- it wanted another Doobie Brothers -- but there are still plenty of very good moments here, such as Hell & High Water (a great autobiographical song of the band's history), Angeline and a typically high-quality Dickey Betts intrumental, From The Madness Of The West. Reach For The Sky certainly couldn't equal what came before (or after, in the 1990s), but it's still a keeper album for me.

Compare this to "Fillmore East" "Eat a Peach" and their best works and it is going to come up short- no question. But compare it to the work of most other bands and this still comes up smelling like a rose. Dickey gets off a good instrumental in "From the Madness of the West" and Gregg's 7 minute composition "So Long" is a really great number. There are some songs not up to the usual Allmans standard here but there's still some very good stuff here. 3.5 stars.

This is not the Allman Brother's of the Fillmore fame- but the ABB of the Arista years. First thing first- Reach for the Sky is the weakest of all ABB albums. It is just swamped by the dreaded synthesizer, suffers from poor songs and a lack of guitars. Best cut is the instramental "From the Madness of the West" which previews the triple drum drum section of today's ABB. Brothers of the Road is much stronger effort, but still suffers from Arista quest to turn the ABB into the Dobbie Brothers. This album reminds me of more a Gregg Solo/Dickey Solo album than a ABB album. But if you like Gregg's/Dickey's solo stuff, you might like this.

The Allman Brothers create a sold collection of songs. The sound is still distinctive. It is not "Eat A Peach",

but it is not suppose to be. "From The Madness of the West" is great little instrumental, as good as "Pegasus" and "Hell And High Water", "Mystery Woman" and "Angeline" are real solid numbers.

Being from Atlanta, and having worked back-stage at the Auditorium, I'm a late 60s and early 70s die hard. I know the Bros early years were sometimes mystical. But I recently got off my old cool high horse and finally gave these release a shot. In contrast to what we get in this age, these are very good works. No, it is not the first five releases or even Enlightened Rogues....nevertheless, there is good ABB music here. I don't know that I've ever have heard a Greg tune that does not somehow move me. And Betts is an underrated guitarist and song writer. If you want hear what 80s music could sound like when good...well then, it's "all good" here. Toeler and Goldflies do a good job - especially considering what they stepped into and the expectations.