Released two years ago, Dan Fogelberg's first album, Home Free, acquired a cult, though it received scant critical or commercial notice. Set against a glowing Norbert Putnam production, Fogelberg's pastoral romantic ballads, delivered in a high, quavering tenor, sounded as appealing as sweet Crosby Stills & Nash. Souvenirs is more elaborately textured, a tour de force of instrumental and vocal overdub, in which Fogelberg sometimes sings four or five parts at once in a voice more detached and echoey than the one on Home Free. Produced by Joe Walsh, Souvenirs shows off Fogelberg's extraordinary sensitivity to vocal harmony and his impressive facility at mixing his own guitar (both acoustic and electric) and keyboard playing into crystalline textures.

Though occasionally the overdubbing sounds like a substitute for melody, more frequently Fogelberg shows above average ability as a tunesmith. The title cut, an elegiac waltz, is especially captivating. A similar plaintiveness characterizes "Changing Horses," "The Long Way," "Song from Half Mountain" and "There's a Place in the World for a Gambler," reveries about the passage of time, while the gorgeous production complements their imagery.

The near preciousness of these ballads is offset by several tougher CSN&Y type songs (the best, "As the Raven Flies" is reminiscent of Young's "Ohio") and by one country rocker, "Morning Sky." While Fogelberg forgoes pathos in these songs for more down-to-earth matters, their sound is less distinctive than the ballads. Ultimately Souvenirs concerns itself more with aural perfection than with exposition of ideas. Fogelberg has succeeded in constructing a dream world of sound, polished beyond anything CSN&Y or Ian Matthews have attempted, and in the process transforms himself from one human voice into a studio choir.

- Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone, 12/19/74.

Bonus Review!

It took this poor fellow three years to write these songs -- why, just the title of "Changing Horses" represents weeks of thought -- but in a heartwarming show of togetherness his friends helped with the record. Joe Walsh produced, Don Henley played some drums, and Graham Nash sang a few harmonies, though in the spirit of his overarching vision Fogelberg prefers to tape those on himself.   Inspirational Verse: "...you wish someone/Would buy your confessions." C-

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.