Artist: The Byrds
Album: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Year: 1968
So here it is, my favorite Byrds album, and one of my favorite albums of the 1960's. This is where the band found a really nice balance between all of its various styles: the folk, the pop, the experimental electronics, and the country-rock.
A few songs here just slay me every time. The waltzing "Get to You" is a fantastic string-laced pop song. "Wasn't Born to Follow" has a similar melody to Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" but carries country-rock into the space-age with its otherworldly electronics. The album's second half has all kinds of hidden treasures: the rollicking "Old John Robertson," the jazzy motorik-pulsed "Tribal Gathering," the pastoral psychedelia of "Dolphin's Smile" to name a few.
The early Byrds albums were a little too uneven for my tastes. Too many forays into kitschy pop. The later Byrds albums go a little too country. On The Notorious Byrd Brothers, everything comes together so well. The songs flow together really nicely, it's a gorgeous pop album at its core, yet retains an experimental edge throughout. A masterpiece.
Rating: Indispensable
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