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.