164. The Youngbloods - Elephant Mountain (April 1969)

1. Darkness, Darkness*

2. Smug

3. On Sir Francis Drake

4. Sunlight*

5. Double Sunlight

6. Beautiful*

7. Turn It Over

8. Rain Song (Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down)

9. Trillium

10. Quicksand

11. Black Mountain Breakdown

12. Sham

13. Ride the Wind

***1/2

Some albums blow you away with their daring arrangements and unexpected turns. Others just present a sort of inarguably quality throughout. Elephant Mountain is definitely one of the latter sorts. Opener "Darkness, Darkness" is both a brilliant song and highly misleading - its inky balladry is completely at odds with the subtle, sunshine infused R&B of the rest of the album. It's a dark, strange, beautiful song, but it really stands at odds with gorgeous numbers like "Sunlight" and "Beautiful".

This is an incredibly tasteful, well played and recorded album. There's barely a note out of place. Sometimes this can be a little disappointing, as The Youngbloods never really tear loose. But there's a place for subtle, impeccably played pop music, and if you're in the mood for that sort of thing I can definitely recommend Elephant Mountain. It's the perfect soundtrack to a summer's day (something I can vouch for - it is midsummer here and I've been relaxing on my day off with a few drinks). Although West Coast in sound, the Youngbloods hailed from New York and did the hard yards in Canada, and the result is sunshine pop with a harder, slightly artier edge. The rhythm section (especially the bass) is deep and rock solid. The guitar work is usually tasteful but engages in a few flights of fancy. And throughout you have some beautiful electric piano playing. Now, I may be in the minority with this, but I absolutely love the electric piano. And Lowell Levinger knows exactly what he's doing. 

Even though it's mostly ultra-tight soul-rock crossover music, there are also a few interesting jazz rock explorations (the multi-part "On Sir Francis Drake" is a good example). So you get a lot of variety, which is nice. I guess this is folk rock, but it tends far close to rock than folk, and successfully incorporates a lot of looser jazz elements into the music. Not just in the piano and organ accompaniments, but in the subtle and shifting way the group approach harmonics. This is some classy shit.

Anyway, it's not the greatest album in the world, but if you want smooth rock and R&B done right, this is definitely worth checking out. 

163. The Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking (July 1969)

1. Genesis Hall

2. Si Tu Dois Partir

3. Autopsy*

4. A Sailor's Life*

5. Cajun Woman

6. Who Knows Where the Time Goes?*

7. Percy's Song

8. Million Dollar Bash

****1/2

And so we come to one of my very favourite bands. It's nice to encounter new music, but it's also nice to be able to settle in with an old favourite. Unhalfbricking is in many ways Fairport's high point. Their first two albums were pretty solid, and Liege & Lief has a couple of incredible songs in "Tam Lin" and "Matty Groves", but Unhalfbricking is just such a pretty, likeable, and diverse album. Unhalfbricking sees the band synthesising their West Coast American influences with traditional British folk fare, and the result is music that manages to sound new and vital while also drawing on a diverse range of traditional influences. There are a few zydeco-influenced numbers, and some excellent Bob Dylan covers. But there's also the epic sprawl of "A Sailor's Life", a song that rewrote the rules for what folk rock could be. There's the jazz-inflected, time signature-hopping "Autopsy", a beautiful and heart-breaking song about trying to break free from a cycle of self destructive depression and introspection. And there's the gorgeous "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?", possibly vocalist par excellence Sandy Denny's finest hour as both a singer and a songwriter. 

And really, it's hard to overstate just how good Denny is. Along with the superb Richard Thompson on guitar, she's really responsible for Fairport's classic sound. It's unfortunate that she'd spend the Seventies sliding into coke addiction and ultimately die of a brain haemorrhage after a drunken fall down a flight of stairs. There's a reason she's the only singer Led Zeppelin ever let guest on one of their songs. Her voice can be smooth as silk or (as on "Percy's Song") as strident and forceful as the wind. Add to that that she managed to write something as beautiful and affecting as "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?", and she's really everything you could want in a folk singer.

I won't go on for long about Unhalfbricking, because I really couldn't be bothered, but if you like folk rock, or even just rock in general, this is an essential album. Richard Thompson's jaw dropping guitar work and Sandy Denny's beautiful voice are worth the price of admission alone. It's a bit sad really. Here on Unhalfbricking, they present themselves as a bunch of nice young folks who might enjoy the odd smoke or drink but are really more interested in making beautiful music. They are, really, kind of a rock band for squares, but they have appeal beyond cardigan-wearing chicken farmers because they have a passion and a talent for music that elevates their music and because they really did have a new and exciting approach to not just rock, but music in general. Unhalfbricking lets you see every side of that band - everything from epic folk workouts to simple pop songs. The Fairport Convention were really something special. 

162. Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority (April 1969)

1. Introduction

2. Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?*

3. Beginnings*

4. Questions 67 & 68*

5. Listen

6. Poem 58

7. Free Form Guitar

8. South California Purples

9. I'm A Man

10. Prologue, August 29, 1968

11. Someday (August 29, 1968)

12. Liberation

***1/5

If you're like me, you only really know Chicago from their song "If You Leave Me Now", which was mockingly reworked by Lemon Jelly and used as Butters' unofficial theme song in South Park. And fair enough - Chicago are I guess one of those bands that were huge at the time but have been largely forgotten by modern rock fans. This is a bit unfortunate, because as it turns out they're actually pretty great. As with most double albums, Chicago Transit Authority goes on far too long and doesn't have quite enough ideas to sustain its length, but this is still a pretty great album. In many ways, it's the album Blood, Sweat & Tears thought they were making - a clever mix of jazz, R&B, soul and hard rock that has had genuine thought put into it and is being performed by ferociously talented musicians. The result is an album that starts as proggy awesomeness, transitions through soul, jazz and psychedelia, and ends with a fourteen minute wah-wah guitar freak-out worthy of Jimi Hendrix. It's kind of awesome, and unlike most double albums you can actually listen to it all the way through without getting bored. 

A lot of the success of this album can be attributed to the band's attitude. They were all shit hot players, but rather than produce a bunch of techy nonsense they wanted to make an album of clever, innovative good time music. This means that they treat their audience with respect, and understand that most people listen to music to feel better about things and relax a bit. So this is an album you could put on at a party, or listen to by yourself while knocking back a few drinks (which is what I did). The songs are all very well done in the way they mix big band jazz with rock music (it sounds like a terrible idea but works really well), and they're all very cleverly structured so that ideas flow naturally rather than just having the songs lurch between genres. "Introduction" is a borderline prog workout, but the lyrics are just the singer exhorting people to have a good time while the band try and search for a new kind of music (impressively, they largely succeed). Then you have the classic "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?", which starts with a free jazz piano exploration and then shifts into a pop song so glorious it's like sunshine in a jar. 

The back end of the album contains looser, less carefully structured songs presumably more reflective of the band's live sets. "Freeform Guitar" is just guitarist Terry Kath improvising on his guitar, but it's actually pretty great and kind of a precursor to noise rock. That contrast between a harder, more exploratory form of rock and lighter pop sensibilities is part of what makes this album work so well. Chicago were obviously very well educated musically, and had pretty wide-ranging tastes, but they also understood how to craft songs that someone who wasn't on drugs might want to listen voluntarily. That sounds like an obvious thing to be but trust me - I have listened to 162 albums for this project and it is a lesson many, many artists have failed to learn. 

You could criticise this album for being a precursor to Seventies soft rock, but I actually don't mind that sort of music too much. Yes, Chicago probably led to REO Speedwagon, but on the other hand "Roll With The Changes" kicks arse. So this is a bold, ambitious, and incredibly fun album of highly innovative music, and I was glad to encounter it. If not for this project, I doubt I would ever have given Chicago the time of day. But Chicago Transit Authority is well worth a listen. 

161. Tim Buckley - Happy Sad (April 1969)

1. Strange Feeling*

2. Buzzin' Fly*

3. Love from Room 109 at the Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway)

4. Dream Letter

5. Gypsy Woman*

6. Sing a Song for You

***

I didn't much care for the previous Tim Buckley album we had on this list. I felt like he was searching for something and hadn't quite found it, and his lyrics were generally fucking terrible. Here, however, Buckley stretches out and relaxes, his voice is in fine form and more used as an instrument than a delivery mechanism for pseudo-intellectual balderdash, and there are jazz elements that are beautifully incorporated into his mellow brand of folk rock. 

That said, I can't really call myself a Tim Buckley fan. I think the problem is that this is basically make out music for depressed heroin addicts, and the closest I can come to that state of mind is lying on my couch drunk at one in the morning. But I mostly listen to these albums during the day, more or less sober, and so I'm not really adequately attuned. 

That said, there's a lot to like here. The lyrics are secondary to the music, and as an exercise in sustained mood Happy Sad is pretty great. It's the sort of album that's great to have on in the background when you want to listen to something but don't at the same time. There's much more emphasis on the music, and the feel of the music, than there is on anything else. Buckley's voice is, here at least, pretty incredible - a soulful moan with an incredible range. I just wish there were more actual songs. I like the idea of highly experimental jazz-folk easy listening on paper, but when a guy is capable of writing something as charming as "Buzzin' Fly" I can't help but wish he'd hew a little closer to pop music, or at least something that is recognisably a song.

So I doubt I'll be joining the cult of Buckley, but this is a nice listen, even if it occasionally pissed me off. I have high hopes for Starsailor, which is generally regarded as his magnum opus. 

160. Sly and the Family Stone - Stand! )April 1969)

1. Stand!*

2. Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey

3. I Want to Take You Higher

4. Somebody's Watching You

5. Sing a Simple Song*

6. Everyday People*

7. Sex Machine

8. You Can Make It If You Try

****

Some albums piss me off because they're terrible and annoying. Stand! pissed me off because it's six great songs and two of the biggest wastes of time I've ever been subjected to. You have here amazing stuff like "Sing a Simple Song" and "Everyday People", and then you have complete bullshit like "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" and the thirteen minutes of aimless crap that is "Sex Machine". And fair enough - "Sex Machine" is repetitive and funky and exactly long enough to have a reasonably rewarding conjugal engagement to, but it's also fucking annoying. "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" is a far worse offender - not only is it cheaply provocative sophomoric claptrap, but its refrain will bury itself in your head so that you'll spend the next few days after hearing it with unpleasant racial slurs running through your mind. And that vocal wah-wah crap is just terrible.

If you can get past those two profoundly mediocre songs, then Stand! is an absolutely incredible album. The mix of styles is in and of itself political, as much about integration and coming together as the mixed race nature of the band. "Stand!" itself isn't a great song, but then the coda kicks in and it's one of the most glorious gospel-funk-whatever grooves you'll ever hear. "Everyday People" is almost tear inducing in its earnest plea for racial harmony. "Sing a Simple Song" swipes from James Brown and the Meters to create one of the funkiest songs ever recorded. And even if I hate "Sex Machine", I can't deny the obvious influence it exerted on Miles Davis' far more successful forays into long form funk rock jamming. 

The mix of styles here has echoed down through popular music for decades. The experiments aren't always successful, but Stand! represents a watershed moment in popular music. It's kind of sad, really - in a lot of ways the story of the band is the story of the 1960s. They went from this glorious, optimistic band to Sly Stone alone in his bed crooning coked-out nonsense over drum machines. With the benefit of hindsight it's obvious that the 60s dream was never going to work, if only because everyone had a different idea of what they wanted and you had everyone working at crossed purposes. Stand! is as much a testament to the power and conviction behind that dream as There's a Riot Going On is a bleak portrait of just how badly everything went wrong. Given the state of the world at time of writing, Stand! was a welcome reminder of what we're still, all these years later, working towards. 

159. The Temptations - Cloud NIne (February 1969)

1. Cloud Nine*

2. I Heard It Through the Grapevine*

3. Runaway Child, Running Wild*

4. Love is a Hurtin' Thing

5. Hey Girl

6. Why Did She Have to Leave Me (Why Did She Have to Go)

7. I Need Your Lovin'

8. Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me

9. I Gotta Find A Way (To Get You Back)

10. Gonna Keep on Tryin' till I Win Your Love

***1/2

This is another two for one album. Side one sees the Temptations straying a long way from "My Girl" territory, exploring a hard and expansive form of psychedelic soul that employs funky guitars and complex vocal interplay. Side two is more conventional - the production is still quite innovative, but it's all short love songs more in line with what people would expect from the group at the time. So I guess I'll mostly talk about side one.

"Cloud Nine" is a pretty astonishing opener. An admitted bid to stay relevant in a changing pop landscape, it sees the group telling a story of a poor black youth escaping into drugs to deal with the general shittiness of existence. However, it's also quite a clever song because on a cursory listen you might mistake it for a song about the power of positive thinking. It's also quite ambiguous about whether it condones or condemns drug use. Then, musically, it incorporates psychedelia and funk to create a hard, slightly spooky backdrop for the vocals. It's not really surprising that it won a Grammy, as it's an obvious template for so much of the harder edged, socially conscious soul that would dominate the early 70s. 

The Temptations' version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" isn't about to knock Marvin Gaye's version from the top spot, but it's a great cover in any case. There's a stripped-down, jazzy feel but the repeated use of the famous riff holds the song together despite its explorations.

Lastly on side one, you have the truly epic "Runaway Child, Running Wild", which goes for almost ten minutes and tells the story of a teen runaway who finds the world is too much to handle, with the Temptations urging them to go back home before they come to a bad end.

So that's three great songs, two of them dealing with some pretty weighty themes, all representing a new direction musically for soul music. When you consider the towering achievement that is side one of Cloud Nine, it's not really surprising that the more conventional fare on side two comes as a bit of a let down. That's talking as someone with little knowledge of the group, mind - for long time fans at the time side two's collection of pretty ballads was probably quite welcome, showing that the group had matured as artists but weren't about to abandon their roots as purveyors of smooth pop. And the sonic innovations of side one are largely carried over to side two, in a more understated form, with psychedelic tinges and wah-wah guitars and the like. 

In the end, I enjoyed this album quite a bit but I feel it would work much better on vinyl, where you can treat it as two separate listening experiences. Playing through the whole thing on Spotify, there's a contrast between the material that means it doesn't quite work, even if all the songs are solid. 

158. The MC5 - Kick Out the Jams (February 1969)

1. Ramblin' Rose

2. Kick Out the Jams*

3. Come Together*

4. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa)

5. Borderline

6. Motor City Is Burning*

7. I Want You Right Now

8. Starship

***

I'm really of two minds with this album. On the one hand, this is the birth really of overdriven riff rock of the sort that would lead to punk music in a few years. You can see it as a point of origin for everything from stoned out noise jams to the Saints' debut. Unfortunately, on the other hand the lyrics are moronic and the songs all kind of sound the same. And don't give me that crap about the mystique of the band, and how they were violent revolutionaries or what have you. Violent revolutionaries can eat my shorts. This is a stupid, stupid album of stupid, stupid music, made by a bunch of drug addicts who seemed to think that the best solution to the world's myriad problems was to burn everything down and start again.

Musically, though, this album is pretty great. There's a bigness to the sound that more than compensates for bullshit like stealing the riff from "I Can See for Miles" for "Come Together". There are also moments of technical virtuosity which show that the band were playing dumb more as a stylistic choice than because of technical limitations. And if you want a big, dangerous album of overblown garage rock nonsense then this is definitely the album for you. Personally, I don't think the MC5 do anything here that wasn't done much better later on. Yes, they were first, but they seem kind of quaint in retrospect. And frankly, their politics are a bunch of confused, hedonistic bullshit. If you want the same experience, only done really well, I suggest checking out Raw Power by the Stooges or the Saints' debut. 

I could probably write a bunch about the socio-political stance of the band or their impact on future musicians but honestly I will just say this - they opened the door for a lot of great shit, but they themselves were a bunch of pretentious idiots. "I Want You Right Now" features grotesque sucking noises that are less sexy than troubling. And "Starship" is eight minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Also make sure if you're listening on Spotify to choose the Japanese release of the album - the other version doesn't have the rude bits included.