Airborne

The final Curved Air album before the band's late-1976 split is a somewhat under-rated effort, an album that may not be able to hold a candle to the superlative triumphs of their first three records, but still a strong summation of all that made the group so important in the first place. With founders Sonja Kristina and Darryl Way flanked by former Greenslade bassist Tony Reeves, future Police drummer Stewart Copeland, and guitarist Mick Jacques, Airborne kicks off with the delicious "Desiree" -- the band's last genuine chance of restoring former chart glories -- and peaks later with the moving "Heaven (Never Seemed So Far Away." Those two tracks, at least, would not have looked out of place on any of the band's better-feted releases. The rocky "Touch of Tequila," too, is a highlight and, if the album elsewhere sinks towards a more-or-less identikit mid-'70s rock rut ("Broken Lady," "Hot and Bothered") Kristina and Way, at least, retain enough of their old identity to ensure things never scrape the bottom of the barrel. Indeed, had the band's manic reinvention of "Baby Please Don't Go," a non-album single drawn from the same sessions, only been added to Airborne in favor of either of those turkeys, a mere "listenable" album would have been transformed into something altogether grander. ~ Dave Thompson|