I'll admit to being caught off guard by this album. The opening song was as I was expecting the album to be generic hard rock with an emphasis on bombastic lead guitars and very pedestrian song writing. But as the album continued I found the song writing to be anything but pedestrian. The band's strength is their way with a power ballad starting with song #2 Tuesday's Gone and culminating with the iconic closer, Free Bird each song is well paced and has interesting, well conceived arrangements. The album blends a lot of diffrent but complimentary styles and the band sounds at home in all of them. I slept on this album for too long. It's not just Free Bird and filler...its a really really fine album. 4 stars