Robert Palmer - Secrets 1979

Secrets was recorded entirely in New Providence, Bahamas, and an island influence is apparent on a number of its songs. But for the most part, the album features some of Robert Palmer's funkier stabs at R&B and soul ballads. The addictive "What's It Take" gives the clearest sense of a tropical recording setting, and its juju mix of a pop beat and Caribbean rhythms brings a smile with each new listen; Palmer was apt to call it the most fun song he'd penned. The song's theme of marital/relationship troubles crops up in almost every track on Secrets, but such repetition never becomes grating thanks to Palmer's eclectic musical heart. One can hardly imagine the aforementioned tropical "What's It Take" sitting easily with an earnest cover of Todd Rundgren's "Can We Still Be Friends?" and a passionate, scuzzy take on "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)," but of course Palmer manages to mix genres and tempos with his trademark flair. These three songs are among the highlights of the album, but Palmer treads similar ground through the remaining songs, and expert sequencing along with Palmer's subtle and clean production make for a cohesive whole. "Mean Old World" is a beautiful sleeper of a song, where Palmer nearly defines the blue-eyed soul genre. The song's uplifting tones and Palmer's gentle voice together make for a track reminiscent of Nina Simone's version of "O-o-h Child." "Jealous" sees Palmer rocking out with endearingly edgy punk-inspired guitars. Palmer is as suave singing about paranoia and jealousy as he is about love, which makes the album a breezy delight from start to finish. Secrets might not be essential like its successor, Clues, but its accessible nature, fine execution, and honesty mark it as another fine moment in Robert Palmer's recording career. AMG.

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Osibisa - Heads 1972

Osibisa, the West African high-life band from Ghana, waxed their first LP in 1971 and continues to spit them out. Their longevity can be attributed to a vibrant sound and the ability to inject humor into music. They don't allow themselves to become mired in social issues as did the short-lived but often brilliant Cymande, whose LPs were essentially political statements. Osibisa's only agenda is making good music, and if it happens to strike a political or social nerve, fine, but it's not what they're totally about. "Wango Wango" starts slow but evolves into a wicked jam that's heavy as P-Funk. Pleasant flute and trumpet riffs accent the lovely "So So MI La So." The bands' tribute to America, the floating "Sweet America," teases and tantalizes. Percussion heads will appreciate "Ye Tie Wo" and "Che Che Kule." The deepest slabs of social commentary are the thought-provoking "Sweet Sounds" and "Did You Know." All tracks were written by all or various members of Osibisa, who share production credit with John Punter. AMG.

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Darius - Darius 1969

"I feel so bad," sings Darius with an air of resigned desperation near the end of the opening cut, "Shades of Blue," before closing the song with a truly memorable larynx-shredding scream. That sets the tone for this weird little mini-gem, a kind of downbeat psychedelic anomaly that nevertheless boasts some nifty melodic hooks and tight, exuberant playing. Darius delivers his trippy but anxious tunes with a powerful, fetching grit, bolstered by pungent organ and piano arrangements. There's a curious air of mystical disorientation on this obscurity, which deserves a wider hearing. The 2001 CD reissue, as a German import on World in Sound, adds three previously unreleased cuts, also recorded in 1969. These aren't quite up to the same level as the rest of the songs, and one, "Peace & Love," sounds like an instrumental backing track missing the vocal. AMG.

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Shiva's Headband - Take Me To The Mountains 1970

Back in the '60s, when every town in America seemed to have its own burgeoning music scene, Austin was strangely quiet. Long before the city became filled with clubs and began its hosting of the SXSW music festival, there wasn't much happening on the cool Texas plateau. Not much at all -- save for one group that all but dominated the scene from the late '60s to the early '70s. That group was the eclectic, country-fried psychedelic outfit known as Shiva's Headband. Leader, violinist, guitarist, and vocalist Spencer Perskin was (and still is) the quintessential Austin hippie, who not only lobbied for city-based cultural support for local artists (and succeeded, by founding the Armadillo World Headquarters) but also put Austin on the world-wide music map with the release of Shiva's first major-label effort, Take Me to the Mountains on Capitol (the first ever major-label release by an Austin band). The album is formidable, and its influence on the "galactic cowboy" genre was as great as, say, Love's Forever Changes was to the West Coast rock scene. It laid the groundwork for psychedelic twang and brought the world's attention to the creatively diverse (yet firmly rooted) music that was beginning to blossom back in those Texas heyday. Unlike their peers the 13th Floor Elevators, Shiva's Headband never took off into the stratosphere completely, though. Their rock was honest country-rock all the way, but not to the point that it was ever just a pedestrian rehash. Songs like "My Baby" and "Kaleidescoptic" may feature sawing violin and Texas drawl, but there's no denying that their main trajectory is rock. AMG.

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Brian Auger's Oblivion Express - Straight Ahead 1974

Brian Auger arrived on the London scene in the early '60s, right in the thick of the blues and R&B revival that led directly to the British Invasion of 1964. Auger wasn't directly part of that trend, but his swinging, jazzy keyboards remained at the fringes of British rock through the '60s. His roots were in R&B-inflected jazz (a sound identified with the first two-thirds of the '60s), and he thrived during the late '60s and into the '70s by playing adventurous, progressive music, either with his Oblivion Express or as a duet with a rotating group of singers. Auger stayed on this track for decades, swinging between jazz, rock, and R&B, playing regular gigs (either on his own or as support), and recording on occasion. After spending the '60s playing R&B and soul in a variety of combos, including Steampacket and collaborations with Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger assembled a new band to play less commercial jazz-rock in 1970. He facetiously called it the Oblivion Express, since he didn't think it would last; instead, it became his perennial band name. The initial unit was a quartet filled out by guitarist Jim Mullen, bass player Barry Dean, and drummer Robbie McIntosh. Their initial LP, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, was released in 1971, followed later the same year by A Better Land, but their first U.S. chart LP was Second Wind in June 1972, the album that marked the debut of singer Alex Ligertwood. Personnel changes occurred frequently, but the Oblivion Express continued to figure in the U.S. charts consistently over the next several years with Closer to It! (1973), Straight Ahead (1974), Live Oblivion, Vol. 1 (1974), Reinforcements (1975), and Live Oblivion, Vol. 2 (1976). Meanwhile, Auger had moved to the U.S. in 1975, eventually settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the face of declining sales, he switched to Warner Bros. for Happiness Heartaches, which charted in February 1977. Encore, released in April 1978, was a live reunion with Julie Tippetts (née Driscoll) that marked the end of Auger's association with major record labels, after which he dissolved the Oblivion Express and recorded less often. After pursuing solo projects along with a variety of collaborations, including a '90s venture with former Animals singer Eric Burdon, Auger put together a new Oblivion Express in 1995. As of 2000, the lineup consisted of his daughter, Savannah, on vocals, Chris Clermont on guitar, Dan Lutz on bass, and his son Karma on drums. This group issued the album Voices of Other Times on Miramar Records one week before Auger's 61st birthday. Auger continued to play and record regularly through the 2000s and 2010s, highlighted by a 2005 revival of Oblivion Express and the 2012 solo album Language of the Heart, which featured Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. Auger signed a deal with Soul Bank Music in 2022 to release archival material from his catalog. Soul Bank launched the series with Auger Incorporated, a 2023 double-disc set of previously unreleased music from his archive that featured recordings with Steampacket, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Trinity, Julie Driscoll, and Oblivion Express. AMG.

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Dennis Brown - Visions of Dennis Brown 1977

Following a series of early single releases for various Jamaican engineers, singer Dennis Brown entered a particularly prolific partnership with producer Joe Gibbs. The two worked together from the mid-'70s to the early '80s. Visions (1977) presents Brown as a roots-based singer with major crossover potential. The smooth, reassuring quality of his voice and his comfortable range would seem to make him the obvious choice for an American label seeking an international success story. Brown's subject matter spans the spectrum of Rasta concerns, detailing economic suffering, African oppression, deep religious conviction, and a strong political consciousness. The potency of such themes is tempered only by the inevitable lovers rock of "Love Me Always" and a take on Ray Charles' "This Little Girl of Mine." Throughout, Brown delivers pleas to his people to follow the virtuous path. It's a sentiment that becomes particularly poignant with "Stay at Home," the tale of a young runaway. Carrying the musical weight is a typically seasoned set of session players including appearances by the dream horn team of Bobby Ellis (trumpet), Vin Gordon (trombone), Herman Marquis, and Tommy McCook (saxophones). Though the musicians rarely extend themselves (preferring to stay respectably anonymous), their effortless flexibility is well suited to Brown's polished delivery. They soak songs like "Oh Mother" and "Malcolm X" in the sadness of the blues and provide the lighter material with the appropriate lift. Two years down the road, Brown would score a hit with "Money in My Pocket." At the start of the 1980s, the singer's albums would find U.S. release through A&M. Like many of Jamaica's most promising stars, however, the singer's music was largely mishandled, suffering from poor promotion. Visions, however, finds him in his prime and on the verge of the international success he deserved. AMG.

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Tim Hollier - Tim Hollier 1970

A stripped-down album compared to its predecessor, Tim Hollier's self-titled second album is filled with pleasant, catchy folk-based tunes, with Hollier's acoustic guitar much more in the foreground and most of the songs loaded to overflowing with memorable hooks that are fully exploited in Hollier's singing and the various guitar parts. AMG.

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Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs 1974

Guitarist Robin Trower's watershed sophomore solo disc remains his most stunning, representative, and consistent collection of tunes. Mixing obvious Hendrix influences with blues and psychedelia, then adding the immensely soulful vocals of James Dewar, Trower pushed the often limited boundaries of the power trio concept into refreshing new waters. The concept gels best in the first track, "Day of the Eagle," where the opening riff rockingly morphs into the dreamy washes of gooey guitar chords that characterize the album's distinctive title track that follows. At his best, Trower's gauzy sheets of oozing, wistful sound and subtle use of wah-wah combine with Dewar's whisky-soaked soul-drenched vocals to take a song like the wistful ballad "In This Place" into orbit. "Too Rolling Stoned," another highlight and one of the most covered tracks from this album, adds throbbing, subtle funk to the mix, changing tempos midway to a slow, forceful amble on top of which Trower lays his quicksilver guitar. One of the few Robin Trower albums without a weak cut, Bridge of Sighs holds up to repeated listenings as a timeless work, as well as the crown jewel in Trower's extensive yet inconsistent catalog. AMG.

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John Cale - Slow Dazzle 1975

Recording again with Phil Manzanera, along with noted journeyman guitarist Chris Spedding, Cale kept up the focus and amazing music on Slow Dazzle, easily the equal of Fear in terms of overall quality. With Brian Eno again helping out on synth work, Slow Dazzle comes across as a little more fried and unsettling than earlier work. Even the warm, epic lift of the chorus of "Mr. Wilson," very much a tribute to the Beach Boys' main man and one of the best he's ever received, is surrounded by strings and piano both lovely and paranoid. The more accurate tone of the record can be found in such numbers as "Dirty Ass Rock 'n' Roll," an intelligent, sly demolition of the lifestyle done to a glam-touched chug topped off with brass and backing singers, and even more dramatically with "Heartbreak Hotel." One of the most amazing cover versions ever, and arguably the best Elvis Presley revamp in existence, the slower pace, freaked-out Eno synth arrangement, and above all else Cale's chilling delivery make it a masterpiece. Then there's "Guts," which deserves notice for its low-key but still sharp feedback snarl and steady, cool rhythm, but perhaps has its best moment with Cale's gasped, killer starting lyric: "The bugger in the short sleeves f*cked my wife." For all of the stronger rock power, Cale's obviously not out to be pigeonholed, thus the calmer swing of many other numbers, like the great '50s rock tribute "Darling I Need You," featuring great guest sax from Andy Mackay, and the quick, almost sprightly "Ski Patrol." In terms of his own performance, Cale's voice again sounds marvelous, balanced perfectly between roughness and trained control, while his piano skills similarly find the connection between straightforward melodies and technical skill. AMG.

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Bodacious D.F. - Bodacious D.F 1973

Bodacious D.F. was the second group that singer Marty Balin became involved with after leaving Jefferson Airplane in 1970. First, he directed the activities of Grootna, with whom he did not perform on their sole album. Then, he became involved with Bay Area band Bodacious D.F. -- Mark Ryan (bass, vocals), Dewey Dagreaze (drums, vocals), Vic Smith (guitar, vocals), and Charlie Hickox (keyboards, vocals). Bodacious D.F. recorded one self-titled album in 1973, which represented Balin's first LP appearance since Jefferson Airplane's 1969 Volunteers album. But, in 1974, Balin rejoined some of his old Jefferson Airplane cohorts in Jefferson Starship, leaving Bodacious D.F. a one-shot effort. AMG.

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B.B. King - Lucille Talks Back 1975

MCA Special Products' Lucille Talks Back is a budget-line compilation that culls ten highlights from B.B. King's recordings for ABC and MCA in the '70s. Many fans are divided in their opinions of this era, since the production and performances were quite slick, but each album has its moments. Some of those moments are on this collection, which seems to have been chosen at random. Those moments may be enough for the budget-minded listener who only wants a sampler of this era, but most collectors and listeners will find either the original albums or more comprehensive compilations preferable to Lucille Talks Back. AMG.

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John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Platic Ono Band - Some Time in New York City 1972

While Lennon claimed to have always been politically minded, given his working-class upbringing in class-conscious England ("I've been satirizing the system since my childhood," he once mused), rock-pop sensibilities, clever wordplay, or matters of the heart usually took precedence in his musical output. But here Lennon and Yoko, accompanied by New York's Elephant's Memory, sing and scream freely against sexism in "Woman Is the Nigger Of The World" and "Sisters, O Sisters." They protest incarceration in "John Sinclair," "Attica State," and "Born In A Prison," colonialism in "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck Of The Irish," and racism in "Angela."

The richness of Phil Spector's production fills out the danceable grooves on nearly every track. Also featured is Lennon's paean to his adopted home, "New York City," with allusions to doping clerics and transsexual rockers as well as the highly quotable line, "What a bad-ass city!" On the bonus disc, Lennon and Ono get it on with Zappa and the Mothers in live sets from London and New York. Things heat up considerably with "Cold Turkey," freak out with "Don't Worry Kyoko," and veer into the ridiculous with audience participation on "Scumbag." SOMETIME IN NEW YORK CITY is some of the groovin'-est, most tuneful agit-prop ever committed to disc. AMG.

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Greenslade - Bedside Manners Are Extra 1973

Aside from a few minor differences, 1973's Bedside Manners Are Extra is equivalent to Greenslade's debut album, inundated with the same dazzling synthesizer work and atmospheric guitar implementations from Tony Reeves. Andrew McCulloch's drumming is a little more effective the whole album through, balancing out Dave Greenslade's keyboards and Dave Lawson's singing. The songs alternate from vocal to instrumental, beginning with the beautifully lush title track that exploits the ease in which Greenslade applies his techniques. "Pilgrims Progress" picks up the pace, with McCulloch and Greenslade wonderfully playing off one another. The eight and a half minutes of "Drum Folk" really opens things up, with the synthesizer switching to different tempos and brilliancies while McCulloch gets some well-deserved solo time. "Sunkissed You're Not" is the best display of Dave Lawson's vocals of the three, taking on a jazzy feel during the more fervent portions of the song. While the three lyrical tracks might not be as fantastical as Roger Dean's album cover may lead one to believe, the music that surrounds them certainly is, while the instrumentals exhibit a wide range of genres, from jazz fusion to hints of blues to progressive rock. Bedside Manners has Greenslade showing off their musical range to a greater extent than on their first album, but the band's progressive mien is just as sound. AMG.

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Bobby Callender - The Way (First Book of Experiences) 1971

Bobby Callender's second offering is a similarly lush and psychedelic slice of late-'60s/early-'70s mysticism. Again, the listener is transported into a hazy, opium den world of spoken word poetry and David Axelrod-inspired production. The Way follows the self-explorative travels of 'John', the album's protagonist, as he discovers the meaning of love, life and happiness. Be prepared for a number of references to serene meadows, matriarchal sunlight and transcendental harmony throughout. While, generally speaking, the vibe here is very similar to Rainbow, there seems to be less of an emphasis on sitars and Eastern sounds than before. Perhaps his overtly Christian offering, "Let Thy Will Be Done," is an explanation for this. Regardless, this time the overall feel of is more All Things Must Pass than Wonderwall. Collaborators on this highly recommended set include producer, Alan Lorber and members of Oregon. AMG.

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Eric Clapton - Slowhand 1977

After the guest-star-drenched No Reason to Cry failed to make much of an impact commercially, Eric Clapton returned to using his own band for Slowhand. The difference is substantial -- where No Reason to Cry struggled hard to find the right tone, Slowhand opens with the relaxed, bluesy shuffle of J.J. Cale's "Cocaine" and sustains it throughout the course of the album. Alternating between straight blues ("Mean Old Frisco"), country ("Lay Down Sally"), mainstream rock ("Cocaine," "The Core"), and pop ("Wonderful Tonight"), Slowhand doesn't sound schizophrenic because of the band's grasp of the material. This is laid-back virtuosity -- although Clapton and his band are never flashy, their playing is masterful and assured. That assurance and the album's eclectic material make Slowhand rank with 461 Ocean Boulevard as Eric Clapton's best albums. AMG.

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Ray Brown and Moonstone - Mad House 1970

b. Australia. Like his contemporaries, Brown began as a soloist at Sydney's suburban dances in front of house bands, until he acquired his own band, the Whispers in 1965. National success came quickly with a series of hit singles, including, "Pride", "Fool, Fool, Fool", and "20 Miles". In 1966, after five hit singles, the Whispers disbanded and the New Whispers were formed, who failed to sustain the momentum of the earlier outfit and broke up. Brown flew to the USA and, despite gaining a recording contract with Capitol Records, did not find success. He returned to Australia in 1970 with a new, bearded, long-haired image and immediately formed Moonstone, who used exotic instruments, such as the sitar, to record their album, and were consequently seen as a hippie folk band. In late 1971 Brown formed the 11-piece One Ton Gypsy, a cumbersome but excellent country-influenced rock band. After this band broke up, Brown continued to perform sporadically, although he has ceased recording. AMG. 

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Clean Living - Meadowmuffin 1973

There are two bands by this name an Australian and an  American band. Boston, MA folk-rock band best known for their hit polka cover, 1972's "In Heaven Tere Is No Beer". The band formed in 1972 and was originally comprised of Timothy Griffin (drums, percussion), Robert "Tex" LaMountain (rhythm guitar), Robert LaPalm (vocals, guitar), Norman Schell (vocals, guitar), Frank Shaw (bass) and Elliot Sherman (keyboards). Clean Living are a band from Perth, Western Australia. They have released EP on the OWL'S label(Andrew Sinclair, Erasers, the Townhouses) and a split with frozen oceans.They have done diy interstate touring as well as many diy shows in Perth.Band members are also in lord of the friends and sacred flower union.

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Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom 1974

Rock Bottom, recorded with a star-studded cast of Canterbury musicians, has been deservedly acclaimed as one of the finest art rock albums. Several forces surrounding Wyatt's life helped shape its outcome. First, it was recorded after the former Soft Machine drummer and singer fell out of a five-story window and broke his spine. Legend had it that the album was a chronicle of his stay in the hospital. Wyatt dispels this notion in the liner notes of the 1997 Thirsty Ear reissue of the album, as well as the book Wrong Movements: A Robert Wyatt History. Much of the material was composed prior to his accident in anticipation of rehearsals of a new lineup of Matching Mole. The writing was completed in the hospital, where Wyatt realized that he would now need to sing more, since he could no longer be solely the drummer. Many of Rock Bottom's songs are very personal and introspective love songs, since he would soon marry Alfreda Benge. Benge suggested to Wyatt that his music was too cluttered and needed more open spaces. Therefore, Robert Wyatt not only ploughed new ground in songwriting territory, but he presented the songs differently, taking time to allow songs like "Sea Song" and "Alifib" to develop slowly. Previous attempts at love songs, like "O Caroline," while earnest and wistful, were very literal and lyrically clumsy. Rock Bottom was Robert Wyatt's most focused and relaxed album up to its time of release. In 1974, it won the French Grand Prix Charles Cros Record of the Year Award. It is also considered an essential record in any comprehensive collection of psychedelic or progressive rock. Concurrently released was the first of his two singles to reach the British Top 40, "I'm a Believer." AMG.

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Johnny Rivers - Realization 1968

Not a concept album, but a song cycle depicting life in southern California in the late '60s, Realization is a fine cycle to catch a ride on. It's also a serious surprise -- when psychedelia reared its head in 1967, the results were frequently disastrous for those performers who'd been specializing in straight-ahead rock & roll, and few had rocked harder or more straight-ahead than Johnny Rivers. Instead of jumping on a bandwagon that had nothing to do with where he was musically, he hijacked the sounds of psychedelic rock -- much as the Temptations did at Motown -- and took it where he was going. Acting as his own producer for the first time, Rivers opened up a slightly gentler side to his work that's equally valid and a lot more interesting, if not quite as exciting as his rock & roll classics. After a few sonic digressions as a lead-in, "Hey Joe" gets going, carrying listeners into Rivers' gorgeous rendition of James Hendricks' "Look to Your Soul." His own achingly beautiful "The Way We Live" follows, and then comes Hendricks' "Summer Rain," which turned into Rivers' last big hit of the 1960s. And then he has the temerity to take "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and make it prettier and harder -- but less spacy -- than the Procol Harum original; from there he plunges into blue-eyed soul on "Brother, Where Are You." The surprises continue right through to the rather delicate, introspective reading of "Positively Fourth Street" at the close, Rivers succeeding in evoking a vast array of thoughts and emotions. For his trouble, helped by the two hits, he was rewarded with a Top Five charting album, and one that has continued to find new admirers across the decades. AMG.

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Keith - The Adventures of Keith 1969

"Alone on the Shore" opens the third album by Keith, the one name handle for James Barry Keefer. The shimmering pop that was created by Bobby Hebb producer Jerry Ross and arranger Joe Renzetti on the first two Mercury discs is replaced by original compositions and the arrangement of the meticulous Larry Fallon. Fallon is credited for arranging The Looking Glass hit "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl," however, he is the actual producer on that disc. He is one of the industry's underrated talents, and he allows Keith's band of David Jiminez (guitar), Joe Coyle (ryhthm guitar), Dave Fiebert (bass), and Rick Fox (drums) to experiment in ways that are admirable. This LP plays more like latter day Donovan, another one-name pop maestro. "Alone on the Shore" and "Trixon's Election" are heady pop tunes, maybe too deep for Top 40 at the time. Even Buffalo Springfield knew enough to temper their politics with radio friendly music. The sounds here are an intriguing mixture of '60s garage rock with British pop, flavors of The Beatles, The Small Faces, Kaleidoscope UK, and other psychedelic rockers. The production by Ted Daryll allows this group to stretch out. "Waiting to Be" is five minutes and thirty eight seconds of psychedelic jam. Keith wrote only one song on his second album, none on his first, so RCA Records showed some kind of faith in the artist allowing him to compose/co-write all ten titles on The Adventures of Keith. These are adventurous tunes, and worth listening to. It's a natural progression from the second album's Jimmy "Wiz" Wisner's (yes, the one and the same from Tommy James & the Shondells sessions), arrangement of the Spanky & Our Gang hit "Making Every Minute Count" to the short one minute and fifty six second "Melody," which begins like a track from one of the first two Keith albums, diving into the progressive nature of this recording, and back to the pop sensibilities of the first two LPs. "The Problem," which is the last song on side one, was issued as a single with the excellent "Marstrand," the first track of side two. "Elea-Elea" is another five minute plus track, and one of the album's standouts. Great melody and all the indications that Keith should have been a major, major pop star. Where Donovan had Led Zeppelin performing on "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and the Jeff Beck Group behind him on "Goo Goo Barabajagal" helping churn out the hits, Keith and his band crafted an album perfect for FM radio, perhaps a bit ahead of its time for an artist known for covering the Hollies. But Keith's musical direction here is impressive and reiterates how clever his three Top 40 hits prior to this release really were. AMG.

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Yes - The Yes Album 1971

On Yes' first two albums, Yes (1969) and Time and a Word (1970), the quintet was mostly searching for a sound on which they could build, losing one of their original members -- guitarist Peter Banks -- in the process. Their third time out proved the charm -- The Yes Album constituted a de facto second debut, introducing the sound that would carry them forward across the next decade or more. Gone are any covers of outside material, the group now working off of its own music from the ground up. A lot of the new material was actually simpler -- in linear structure, at least -- than some of what had appeared on their previous albums, but the internal dynamics of their playing had also altered radically, and much of the empty space that had been present in their earlier recordings was also filled up here -- suddenly, between new member Steve Howe's odd mix of country- and folk-based progressive guitar and the suddenly liberated bass work and drumming of Chris Squire and Bill Bruford, respectively, the group's music became extremely busy. Jon Anderson's soaring vocals and the accompanying harmonies were attached to haunting melodies drawn from folk tunes as often as rock, applied to words seemingly derived from science fiction, and all delivered with the bravura of an operatic performance. What's more, despite the busy-ness of their new sound, the group wasn't afraid to prove that less could sometimes be more: three of the high points were the acoustic-driven "Your Move" and "The Clap" (a superb showcase for Howe on solo acoustic guitar), and the relatively low-key "A Venture." The Yes Album did what it had to do, outselling the group's first two long-players and making the group an established presence in America where, for the first time, they began getting regular exposure on FM radio. AMG.

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Jackie DeShannon - Laurel Canyon 1968

Laurel Canyon wonderfully captures the natural, idyllic vibe of its titular setting, the creative nexus of the late-'60s Los Angeles music scene. Swapping the polished pop approach of Jackie DeShannon's past hits for an appealingly rough-edged country-soul sensibility, the record celebrates a place and time that transcended the physical world to signify a virtual Garden of Eden for the flower-power generation. Featuring extensive contributions from pianist Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack and guitarist Russ Titleman, Laurel Canyon boasts a swampy, lived-in charm that perfectly complements DeShannon's sexily gritty vocals. Her soulful reading of the Band's "The Weight" anticipates Aretha Franklin's like-minded cover, but most impressive are originals like "Holly Would" and the title cut, which eloquently articulate the rustic beauty of their creator's environs. [RPM's superb 2005 reissue features eight bonus cuts, including several sublimely funky collaborations with Bobby Womack as well as the chart smash "Put a Little Love in Your Heart."] AMG.
 

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