Consumer Guide Album

Crack the Sky: Crack the Sky [Lifesong, 1975]
After too many legends of Atlantis and concept albums about the last cowboy, I was impressed to come upon John Palumbo, who can end one of his existentialist fables "Being is my . . . life" and make it sound like an aperçu. But in the end the words ("Robots for Ronnie," "A Sea Epic") are brittle, while Palumbo's dense modal structures (and Rick Witkowski's guitar inventions) have real tensile strength. Mannered, sure--so's Big Star. Slick, sure--hmm. B-