3 parts:
* Dark Star opens up with 20+ minutes of aimless noodling, little runs running nowhere. Word is they practiced this song like crazy so they can improvise in it smoothly - this is the best they got out of all that work? beedoop beedop deooop deeooop x 1000.
* The after a transitional St Steven, the next two tracks rule: The Eleven's the best Dead song I've heard, and Turn on Your Love Light spins from a Doorsey raveup to something far more frantic and exciting.
* And then the last 2 tracks (plus a blank "goodnight") go right on back out to the nowhere we started from. I could almost forgive Feedback if I hadn't already used up most of my indulgence-tolerating goodwill on Dark Star.
So, one out of three, doesn't seem that good, but the sum's more than the parts somehow. Maybe you need those boring bookends to set the stage, to give you passage too and from that realm of rock. The Dead remain a frustrating band, but this album, at its best moments, is the best thing I've heard from them by a mile, evoking those dusty SF clubs, in all their aimless psychedelia and transcendent collision. I almost love the parts I hate, just for their larger role in the experience. Could be a grower 4/5
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