Generous 2 Stars for Tim Schmidt

Review Score: (4/10)
I feel compelled to bring some balance to all the stellar reviews Crazy Eyes has gotten on Amazon. My hunch is that since this is Furay era Poco then people think, "well I have to give it a good review." While it does rival most of the post-Furay Poco, it definitely is not one of the best Poco albums. I give Crazy Eyes 2 stars for numerous reasons. First the good stuff. Tim Schmidts 'Here We Go Again' is worth the price of the album. All his Poco songs are excellent and this is no exception. Unfortunatley, the track does suffer from some over-production that foreshadows things to come on the remainder of Crazy Eyes and in Poco's career. That's it for the good news. I think the rest of the album is totally subpar and over the top. First of all, Paul Cotton is taking more of a lead with this album. I don't like him at all. He is totally nucountry and his songs are completely bland and unmemorable...hence the Poco turning into complete syrup as the 70s continued. 'Blue Water' is ok, but not worth more than one listen. 'Fools Gold' is fun, but totally unoriginal. Unlike Cotton, Furay really had an original thing going mixing rock and country his way. Cotton can't hold up. Furay's rendition of 'Brass Buttons' is also ok, but Gram does a much better job of his own song. The biggest disappointment on the album is the overblown 'Crazy Eyes' with its ridiculous orchestrations and length. I like the chorus and the snipits of banjo, but that's it. A more fitting tribute to Gram Parsons would have been a quiet, harmony filled acoustic ballad, maybe including a bit of banjo and the chorus from 'Crazy Eyes'. The rest of the album is complete filler. JJ Cale does a far better version of his 'Magnolia' and Furay's 'Let's Dance Tonight' is a pretty weak tune. You can tell Furay was running out of steam with Poco at this point, not putting his best effort forth and wasting all undirected creative energy on the 'Crazy Eyes' centerpiece of the album. Luckily, we would get to hear one last killer Furay tune, 'Falling in Love' in his supergroup with Hillman and Souther.
All in all, a pretty disappointing album. Country rock has no room for sprawling prog-rockesqe epics like 'Crazy Eyes'. Especially in tribute to the man who pioneered the 2 min cosmic american rock song.
Proceed with caution. First timers, check out the self-titled Poco and A Good Feeling to Know...the only Poco albums worth buying on CD.

More Reviews:

• It Just Can Not Be Improved On!
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• Another Haunting
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• Little Known Gem
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• NOT CRAZY ABOUT CRAZY EYES
• Furay's Finale With Poco
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• Poco's Finest Effort
• This is Poco's BEST album, period.