Tracks
- Artificial Energy
- Goin' Back
- Natural Harmony
- Draft Morning
- Wasn't Born to Follow
- Get to You
- Change Is Now
- Old John Robertson
- Tribal Gathering
- Dolphin's Smile
- Space Odyssey
The Notorious Byrd Brothers is an understated album. The songs are a combination of rock and roll, country and folk. They are short, but well developed and efficient.
I'm by no means a fan of the Byrds. Their music tends to annoy me more than it entertains me, but this album is really good. Maybe because the songs are short they don't have enough time to get under my skin. I really like how the songs flow from one to another. Conceptually, they are all different, but they all seem like extensions of each other.
My only guess why this album deserves to be on the 1001 Albums list is that it mixes folk, country and rock and roll in such a way that all three remain distinct styles. In that sense it's really interesting to see how much separation there is between country and rock and roll.
This album is the best so far by the Byrds and it's certainly worth listening to. Of course, Roger McGuinn still writes songs about outer space which always seemed out of place, but this time he's done much better making it work with the rest of the album. Another annoyance that is not so prevalent on this album are the snotty, smarmy vocals. Thank goodness for that.
There's not much variance in the quality of the songs, so despite the contradiction, they are all stand outs.
★★★★★★★★★★
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