This album has to rate as one of Wishbone Ash's strongest albums to date. The band have been working on it on-and-off for about two years and it was definitely worth the effort.
After the first few listens, my favourite tracks are Reason To Believe (the single released last year on download), Can't Go It Alone (with great additional fiddle playing from co-writer, ex-Celtus/Mama's Boys guitarist Pat McManus), Searching For Satellites, Mud-Slick (an instrumental featuring a guest appearance from Deep Purple's Don Airey), Big Issues and Invisible Thread.
Overall, there's great playing from all four members of the band (Andy Powell, Muddy Manninen, Bob Skeat and Joe Crabtree) and a good amount of stretching out musically and trying slightly different styles and sounds.
This album will appeal to all fans of good intelligent rock music. It has strong lyrics, great vocals from Andy Powell, great guitar playing (with many extended guitar solos, which is something that's been missing from the last few albums), and a great solid rhythm section.
Even after just a few listens this is my favourite album of the year. Highly recommended.