Disc: 1
1. Nexus
2. The Innocent Age
3. The Sand And The Foam
4. In The Passage
5. Lost In The Sun
6. Run For The Roses
7. Leader Of The Band/ Washington Post March
8. Same Old Lang Syne
Disc: 2
1. Stolen Moments
2. The Lion's Share
3. Only The Heart May Know
4. The Reach n
5. Aireshire Lament
6. Times Like These
7. Hard To Say
8. Empty Cages
9. Ghosts
This incredible double album released at the apex of Dan Fogelberg's popularity in the early 1980s is an amazing tour-de-force by one of folk-rock's most under-appreciated artists. From the stirring opening instrumental on "Nexus" and its complex and quite accomplished lyrics describing today's contemporary cultural conundrum to the lyrical ballad "Innocent Age", this album showcases Dan's wide range of songwriting, musical, and arrangement skills. Fogelberg tends to favor a very full "wall of sound" approach to his music, and sometimes tends to somewhat overproduce arrangements by having too much going on simultaneously in his works. Yet here the songs are clear, crisp, and simply terrific, from "The Sand And The Foam" to "Stolen Moments" to a lovely accompaniment with Emmy Lou Harris on the memorable "Only The Heart May Know". A number of top-forty hits are included, from "Leader Of The Band" to "Run For The Roses" to "Same Old Lang Syne". My favorites here are the spare and haunting "Aireshire Lament" to the astonishing work on "The Reach". Dan paints a word picture here that leaves me imagining casting about on a lobster boat in the swells and eddies off the Maine coast. Perhaps it is due to its length, but I simply cannot understand why it was never released as a single. This is a wonderful album, folks, and a splendid treat to Mr. Fogelberg's considerable skills and talents. I highly recommend it. Enjoy.
The Innocent Age by Dan Fogelberg is not an album but as it is described in the booklet, a song cycle. This is an appropriate and accurate description. In fact, an even more appropriate description would be a song novel. The album unfolds like a book from the opening instrumental "Nexus" to the closing "Ghosts". In between we are taken on tale that goes to the sea in "The Sand & The Foam", a tribute to his father in "Leader Of The Band", meeting an old flame in "Same Old Lang Syne" and love in various stages in "Only The Heart May Know", "The Reach" and "Hard To Say". Along the way Mr. Fogelberg is assisted by Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh & Timothy B. Schmidt from The Eagles and Emmylou Harris. Mr. Fogelberg reached his commercial and critical peak with this album as it made the top ten and spawned three top ten hits.
This album spawned four hit singles and marked the apex of this great singer-songwriter's career. But this is not just an album that has a few hit singles on it. A meditation on the transience of youth, this song cycle contains not one weak component. Each and every composition is artful, stylish, accessible, and deceptively simple. I consider this to be one of the most important popular albums of the past twenty years. Aside from the hits, the most notable songs are "The Sand and the Foam," "Lost in the Sun," and "In the Passage."
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