– Customer review on 29/05/2011

First, a caveat: I'm hopelessly in love with Alison's voice, one of the great musical instruments of her generation. She could sing the grocery list and it would be a pleasure to hear, so I am biased. However, in context with the previous AKUS records, I'll try to be objective.
I immediately decided tracks 3 and 5 are my favorites, the former written by Krauss' brother Viktor. A haunting, moody piece of mild paranoia, exquisitely arranged and produced. In fact, ALL the tracks have a lush, multi-layered production sound I enjoy. Track 5, an uptempo number called "My Love Follows You..." is in the same mold as "So Long So Wrong", "Take Me For Longing", and "My Poor Old Heart" which pretty much define the sound of Ron Block-era AKUS at its best. The title track is beautiful with its soaring chorus, and the 3 Dan Tyminski vocal showcases are performed with a hard-edged old-timey sound and slightly angry vocals ("Dust Bowl Children").

The album as a whole (the 14 new studio track extended version) has a very polished, if somewhat less dynamic feel overall. "Dimming of the Day" is a good choice of covers (there's only one original, by bassist Barry Bales), but the tempo it's played in is too lugubrious for my taste.
There are also some unfortunately missing pieces: no foot-stomping Jerry Douglas instrumental, no contemporary bluegrass-gospel number by Ron (whose banjo is in less evidence than his guitar), and Alison's fiddle is almost completely absent throughout. Fans of her more trad sound from the 1987-96 period will miss that for sure.

Despite these "flaws" I still love hearing the 14 new tracks, and have this CD in heavy rotation in my car stereo. The musicianship, production quality, beautiful melodies and thoughtful lyrics make it a winner in my book. Oh yeah, there's that Voice too. Makes me wonder if Alison made the same deal Robert Johnson did at the crossroads to be able to sing like that. Just one wish though - Alison, pick up that fiddle! It's getting lonely!