Review Summary: Not great, but it's really not worthy of the hate it receives.
I don't quite get the hate this album seems to get. Yes, at this point it was well established that the Dead were almost exclusively devoted to their live shows being the definitive vehicle for their chops, but that's not say that Go to Heaven is devoid of charm or effort.
Some of the Dead's strongest latter day stalwarts are on this cd - in particular, "Alabama Getaway," "Feel Like A Stranger," and "Althea." Okay, the studio take of "Althea" is as bland as a picket fence compared to the searing live versions, but at its core it's still a great song with some of the most clever Garcia-Hunter lyrics. I'm gonna take a controversial opinion that "Alabama Getaway" is a song they never quite nailed live, and that the studio takes the cake as the most exciting version of the song. "Feel Like a Stranger" was also better live and is one of Weir's better songs as a whole, but this studio version still has an air of menace to it that allows it to stand on its own.
The rest of the album, I'll agree is rough around the edges. "Lost Sailor" is a drag, and "Saint of Circumstance" never once comes to life the way it does live. And while I love Brent's piano playing and harmonies to death, he was a ***ty, one-note songwriter, with "Far from Me" being a pretty good snapshot of the bitter, almost misogynistic rants that would define his compositions with the Dead. "Don't Ease Me In" is a solid closer, though, and recalls their early blues-y charm from the Pigpen days. I will agree that "Antwerp's Placebo" is a deeply annoying track: it's too short to really write about, and yet it's hard not to complain about them wasting space on such filler. Pretty much sums up their attitude towards quality control at this point. Is "Go To Heaven" "American Beauty"? No, but it's still a pretty enjoyable record, not their worst by a long shot.
