Greg Sage's first stopgap solo album was considerably more controlled than his work in the Wipers. The blackened thrust that made his band famous was replaced with thin, fiddly guitar work, not a rare occurrence in a situation like this, but the cold, raw-boned quality that fans were so fond of had also remained intact. Straight Ahead's worst flaw actually turned out to be what it had to say. Sage's diaphragm drawl stumbled around well-built compositions and articulated truly dreadful lyrics, the album's nadir being "World Without Fear," which was plagued with sullen platitudes and an embarrassingly cliché-wrought Hands Across America humanism. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide
