I'm gonna get started here with the Honorable Mentions... All these albums I at least enjoyed. The first mentioned are the closest to making the cut and in some cases I feel like they deserve several more listens but I just don't feel inclined to put this game off for a few more days.
I am doing this thing where if I am aware of or have heard 2 or more albums by the artist from '69 I bunch those 2 together. But for honorable mentions I'll separate them and individually rank them...
Scott 4 by Scott Walker (This is a really coooool album and there is a lot going on and his voice is also coooool as hell... but I never quite felt anything in particular while listening. Just kinda cool, but overall not awed.)
Spirit of the Golden Juice by F.J. McMahon (This is actually a really interesting album, for sure a solid psych folk/country album, and the production style is just interestingly sharp...hard to explain. I likes it)
Ask Me No Questions by Bridget St. John (This is an album that definite moments of intense beauty. Songs like "Autumn Lullaby" the title track, the opener, etc, just shimmer. Her songwriting is beautiful, and she has a nice voice. But the album wasn't quite in the main super engaging throughout. Some of these takes are very very shallow and are not set and I feel like I NEEEED to relisten sometime to see how I feel about it. But there ya go.)
My Griffin Is Gone by Hoyt Axton (This is an album which actually is probably ranked too low. But I am too lazy to change everything up. The atmosphere and the strange ambience of otherwise straight forward and beautiful folk/country songs is really wonderful. The way this album starts out in particular with "Before the Time of Towns" then "Beelzebub's Laughter" is stunning! Then some later tracks like "Snowblind Friend" and "Revelations" are fab. This, again, is probably too low but these ranks reflect mostly and for sure a reflexive thought. This will be a revisit candidate.)
Rehearsals For Retirement by Phil Ochs (Going in to this project Rehearsals was top 10, then I relistened and it just felt cold and despairing...which is the point. But I was not wowed I was more just feeling beat down by the overarching evil of the world.. I don't know. Its a solid, paranoid, lost album, which will ring curiously relavent today for many people. He was clearly reeling from the recent election of Nixon, and wanted to just burn the cruel world down, the cover is awesome, he's a genius songwriter, etc. So its a very very interesting album. But, again, its no Pleasures of the Harbor.)
Scott 3 by Scott Walker (This is actually an album I appreciate more than enjoy... As. Of. Now! Again, all things Scott Walker are a mystery to me. He is clearly cool and just a forward-thinking artist and I appreciate how much influence these albums had on a lot of my fave artists of the coming decades. But, this album was even more inscrutable than Scott 4. Its very moody, and subtle, and his voice is very very crooning and in theory impressive. But *gasp* i don't like his voice. There, I said it)
Song of a Gypsy by Damon (This was a late addition to my queue, thanks to a rec from Hayden. And it was heavy and psychedelic and very cool. The songwriting, lyrically, wasn't very impressive. But when the album gets heavy and psych-y, the album just kills. It didn't "feel" like a singer/songwriter album, if that makes sense. Honestly, I'm not sure I belive that, considering how varied these Honorable Mentions have been and how crazy varied the top 25 will be, what is a this "Singer/Songwriter Feel" I speak of? Well, I suppose its just a feeling of getting into an individuals head for 30 min to an hour and hearing his concerns and views and the words paint distinct pictures of what ever it is the person is trying to put forth. With this album, It was more excellent due to again, just cutting, vibrant psych sounds and a certain angry, transgressive vibe.)
Carl Oglesby by Carl Oglesby (This is pretty cool, detached, mellow by and large , and kind of Leonard Cohen circa late 80s a bit, without the 80s. It's another album that deserves more listens to get a solid idea of it. I think it was the 6th new album I listened to that day and I just wasn't wired to give it as much attention. His voice is kinda mysterious, a bit deep, and the songwriting is excellent.)
Rainmaker by Michael Chapman (This man was a beast guitar player, and the sounds of this album are intense and beautiful, an excellent mix of folk and rock and blues and its really solid sonically. His voice and his lyrics aren't great. Not here anyway. His lyrics indicate he was really trying to pull off that sensitive singer/songwriter aesthetic. The results are not impressive poetically. But whatevs.)
Constant Companion by Ruthann Friedman (Her voice and her songwriting are on full display here. Her voice is not my cuppa. Its very falsetto-heavy, kinda over the top Joan Baez type stuff. I do not like that. It took me a very short time to tire of the vocals. The music is a stripped down, pretty folk sound. I think, much like Joni Mitchell's stuff, I need to revisit this and similar albums with vocals which irk me in order to finally groove with it. For the longest time I just couldn't stomach Joni due to similar vocal pyrotechnics. Now I adore her music. So there ya go.)
Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart (I don't get it. I mostly included this here to say just that... I don't yet get it. My time, maybe, shall come.) _________________ -Ryan
Trout Mask Replica is like this monolith in my life that I want to understand and appreciate and I just haven't yet.
I want to get it. I'm just not there. But I think I'll get there, I hope I do. I did eventually with The Disintegration Loops, hopefully I will with that. _________________ Progressive Rock
Trout Mask Replica is like this monolith in my life that I want to understand and appreciate and I just haven't yet.
I want to get it. I'm just not there. But I think I'll get there, I hope I do. I did eventually with The Disintegration Loops, hopefully I will with that.
I appreciate The Disintegration Loops more in theory than in actuality 🤣
Hope you guys dig Trout Mask Replica one day. I've always totally understood why people don't like it, but man is it good. _________________ Doubles & Conch
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Trout Mask Replica is like this monolith in my life that I want to understand and appreciate and I just haven't yet.
I want to get it. I'm just not there. But I think I'll get there, I hope I do. I did eventually with The Disintegration Loops, hopefully I will with that.
I feel you. I got into it right when I was at my highest fanboy status for Swordfishtrombone/Rain Dogs/Frank's Wild Years- era Tom Waits. Also I was really into some other really gritty somewhat wild albums with roots in Captain Beefheart like To Bring You My Love. So, when I came to this I guess I was ready I thought. Granted I had had no exposure to free jazz or anything. But my first listen was one of "whoa my mind is blown! this is so weird, and I get it...I think". Each subsequent revisit has ended shortly after it started. I admire the hell out of how very abrasive and unique it is. But, yeah, I am not at all there. And whenever I see it on people's charts, and people I generally agree with I feel a since of Shame.
Hayden wrote:
RockyRaccoon wrote:
Trout Mask Replica is like this monolith in my life that I want to understand and appreciate and I just haven't yet.
I want to get it. I'm just not there. But I think I'll get there, I hope I do. I did eventually with The Disintegration Loops, hopefully I will with that.
I appreciate The Disintegration Loops more in theory than in actuality 🤣
Hope you guys dig Trout Mask Replica one day. I've always totally understood why people don't like it, but man is it good.
I agree on Disintegration Loops... maybe I love it more than you as of now. But when I'm in the right mindset, that "album" especially 1 and 3, I get teary eyed and I think about the universe and the fact that I am listening to the most profound piece of art about the deterioration of the universe and the factuality of death and decay that maybe exists. Its truly enlightening.
But its an album I either have on my chart at like #10 or completely off my chart. Its just that sort of incomparable gem to me which I can't quite grasp fully.
And I really hope I get into Trout Mask Replica someday...cheers. _________________ -Ryan
Now that I have given this classic a few listens I am starting to get why it is so beloved by so many. The lyrics are consistently creative and unique and all that, and her voice is such a powerful. It can be a force for good or bad, however. When it gets really really amped up to 11, I have a hard time stomaching it. I suppose in these moments she is really letting lose, like emotions and stuff. But The way the album is composed and recorded the sudden bursts of earnest, tuneful yelps just hurts my ears.
The song structures are interesting, can't say I love the constant quiet, loud crash of piano, followed by quiet and another explosion, etc.
Now so far I've been negative about it. But I assure you I do like this album. About 40% just sounds bad to me, about 30% is marvelously amazing and inspired, and that spare 30 is quite good.
I have nothing to say about this album of any substance as you have noticed. I kinda think I may have ranked it too high at 25, and the fact that I have to try to criticise or praise this album is probably why I have put off doing this rank. Oh well.
Rating: 7.8/10 initially, at this moment I am feeling a 6.2/10. 🙁 (can someone explain the immense virtues of this album? A lot of people I generally respect the opinions of really really love it...)
Edit: The song "Save The Country" is in my ears now, and I am remembering that I always dislike this album until about 40% in. This song and "Time and Love" are excellent. So, new new rating: 7.1/10
Now this album is more my style. Plain, pure by and large, country folk. Grainy and lyrical and sweet and rough. It's really a pretty straight forward folk album with the occasiuonal country honky tonkin' to keep it from going full blown sad, introverted folkie album thru and thru.
Songs like "Morning Song to Sally" feel so intensely warm and intimate that it is hard for me to pay attention to anything in the here and now. I am just so washed up into the tenderness and thoughts of relationships in my own past breezily roll into my mind. It is such a beautiful track. And simple.
The next song is maybe the stand out though. "Shell Game" just has this awesome piano and this sweet feint at the beginning where you think you're going back headlong into country honk, then the atmosphere just shifts and the rhythm and the piano create this amazing atmosphere. And the vocals just feel so conversational and the lyrics and the melody is just gorgeous. And, again, I just love the sound of that twinkling piano and that shimmery pedal steel. Just fabulous.
The album is consitently beautiful and all. The main thing that stops this from being a real showstopper is that it really is very very unadorned and predictable in its mix of country and folk. And when I'm in the mood for this type of record, there are many many more that do the same or similar things and do it much better. But more on those a bit later on this list.
It feels weird placing this so low on this list. Maybe I am just boring. Cuz in terms of the forward thinkingness of the artist, the uniqueness of the sound, the occasional overpowering beauty of the words, the whole flow of the album, etc, this is about as far out there as any album of 1969.
The first and last tracks of this album are so intensely awe-inspiring that it casts the rest of the truly solid and excellent album into a shadow.
The first song in particular "God Is Alive Magic Is Afoot" is so inspired and it took my breathe away the first time I heard it and it still has similar effects no matter how many times I hear it. Its such a brilliant, anthemic, artisticly risky statement. Wowzers!
"Poppies" is the closer and it is also just dreamlike, perfection.
The in between songs are consitently excellent and this album will be returned to quite a bit I am pretty sure.
Don't love her vocals much, I suppose I just don't like super showy vocals, whether they be Buckley, Baez, Plant, or Buffy.
This Jansch album does remind me of a more grounded and perhaps less perfectly composed version of The Pentangle circa 1969. After all he was one of the main driving forces of that group and a lot of the same musicians are here in this batch of recordings. The difference? MORE JANSCH! Which is awesome, just what the doctor ordered. Also, as Jansch was one of the great british interpreters of the deep Blues, the record is a bit more down and dirty with the blues. Still, there is lots and lots of space for gorgeous british folk and folk tunes throughout. This may not be the best Jansch solo album. I have only heard 3 as of now. But of the 3 I've heard this is my favorite and the one I come back to the most. Something about this album just feels perfectly in the middle between loose, relaxed Jansch musings and the more gorgeously traditional and composed sound of Basket Of Light.
And my goodness "Poison" is just such a cool, atmospheric blues song! I Loves it!
And rounding this batch of 5 is this interesting artifact. The details of this musicians sudden disappearance and its possible ooooh spoooooky relation to aliens as the name of this album suggests is perhaps the thing which initially interested me about it some time ago. But I did not listen to it until recently. And now that I have several times, I can say its pretty fabulous.
I am having a hard time putting my finger on what makes this album special. Its just one of those mildly psychedelic, folk rock albums which contains all these interesting ideas and flourishes and each song unfolds like a flower with a few new little nicely placed detailed.
Jim Sullivan's throughout manage to be very interesting and they do capture my attention in every word he speaks, but they are very plain. He does not have a memorable voice particularly, but maybe its his sort of unusual rhythm in his delivery.
Anyway, to say more about this album, the band is awesome! Apparently Jim Sullivan, a relatively popular local songwriter was able through some music connection, to bag the freaking Wrecking Crew to be his band on this album. The Wrecking Crew was the name of the group of musicians who are responsible for a lot of the session work on little known albums like Pet Sounds and Smile and some classic Phil Spector records. yeah, cray cray right.
Anyway, and Sullivan proves himself able to use this great band to create a nuanced set of great pop and rock and folk songs of the highest quality, and its an album which I personally find more and more details in and enjoy more and more with each listen. Its great hidden gems like this which are such amazing growers which makes the whole rankings business nearly impossible. As I listen now to the brilliant dreamy whimsy and the killer bass line of track 4 "Whistle Stop" I wonder to myself "How in God's name are you ranking this number 21?!" Such a sweet, almost childish, love song.
Anyway, I'll stop here. This is great and I really do recommend it! From this album onward I basically love everything. So get ready for a lot of no critiques at all.
Rating: 8.5/10 ("Really, you're giving an 8.5 to your 21st favorite singer/songwriter album of 1969?!?"
P.S. Any of you who aren't familiar with the mysterious storuy of Jim Sullivan's disappearance in 1975 should google his name. It really is quite interesting and mysterious.
-----------------------------
Okay, and as I come forward and up on these rankings I am thinking my reviews will be more inspired and interesting. Not promising. But that's it for now. Have a good night and when I see you next I should be rolling out #20-16. _________________ -Ryan
The best explanation I can come up with for why New York Tendaberry is one of my favorite albums is this. She's from New York, I'm from New York. New Yorkers tend to love her more than other people. It must have something to do with living here. It could be that the album makes more sense to people who live here than to people who don't. Idk
I think when you get to 1970 and her album Christmas and the beads of sweat, you'll like it better. Because it's produced in a different style and all her excesses are really really toned down. She almost sounds normal. And it isn't so jarring with all those explosions and shit. And it was produced by Felix Cavaliere. If you remember the great 60s group The Rascals, he was the leader of that group and they made really great records. So you know it's much more pleasant to listen to.
I can't believe The Wrecking Crew plays on that Jim Sullivan album. I've never ever heard of the guy. But now I can't wait to hear it. sounds fucking awesome.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
I can't believe The Wrecking Crew plays on that Jim Sullivan album. I've never ever heard of the guy. But now I can't wait to hear it. sounds fucking awesome.
First off, thanks for the explanation for New York Tendaberry. I see what you mean. Maybe little mild mannered midwestern boy me just has a hard time getting into the somewhat chaotic, rapidly swinging mind of Nyro. Its an album with almost no groove. That is what throws me. There is basically no point when I settle into a groove or a sound and I just roll with it. Cuz when I like a piano line or melody, when I love the melody, when I hear a cool groove I know it will be gone in a crash and Nyro will fill the now open musical space with a really loud loud soulful lyric. There. But I dig your description.
I started listening again to Eli and I liked it a lot more. It actually had some consistent memorable melodies and songs. And I listened to a little of Christmas and I liked it better. So yeah looking forward to hearing more.
as for the qouted text above, yeah its crazy right!? I think you'll enjoy it. Its a strangely good album. It just has an interesting and varied sound and there is no part that sticks out as a real showstopper, but the thing all the way through just feels good and comfortable and it all coalesces into a really beautiful folk/pop/rock album with some great songs and some really beautiful orchestral moments, and little fillips and flourishes here and there to keep it interesting. I hope you likes it. _________________ -Ryan
Yeah she doesn't let a groove play out until the very end of a song. And she seems to be obsessed was changing tempo a bunch of times within the same song. She does it on almost every song. Must mean something to her
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Mercury
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