1001+ Albums: 60s Block 11

1001+ Albums:

60s Block 11

Are You Experienced?

   Artist: Jimi Hendrix

   Year: 1967

       Back to back to back great songs. Acid blues and electric rock full of fire and energy that never subsides, always grooving. It doesn't always feel like a cohesive whole though, more a collection of great songs that don't always flow together perfectly, which hold it back from greatness. Highlights are "Purple Haze", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Hey Joe", "Are You Experienced?", "Manic Depression", etc.

   Rating: A-

Beach Samba
   Artist: Astrud Gilberto
   Year: 1967

       What ever happened to the girl from Ipanema? Now all we've got is glorified elevator music, and weird big band circus numbers. this is almost exactly what I don't like in music, saved just slightly by Gilberto's unique voice.

   Rating: D+



Da Capo
   Artist: Love
   Year: 1967

       So sugary sweet it's almost childish. songs about orange skies and cotton candy, but what would you expect from a band called Love. When it's not sweet, its yelling and nonsensical, also like a child. I didn't like it much, in short.

   Rating: D+


Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim
   Artist: Frank Sinatra
   Year: 1967

       More of Sinatra's usual sap, now inflected with Bossa Nova style. Just don't really like this kind of music, too saccharine and sentimental for my taste. He sounds like he's still playing from the 50s, or even the 40s.

   Rating: C-


Electric Music for the Mind and Body
   Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
   Year: 1967

       A strange, chilled out, bluesy, psychedelic album. The kind of thing I feel like I'm supposed to drop acid with. Psychedelia has officially got its grip on the western audiences of the world. Sometimes hilarious in its bluntness about drugs, like whispering "LSD" at the end of a song.

   Rating: B


Sunshine Superman
   Artist: Donovan
   Year: 1967

       Folk rock at it's medieval tinged best. Donovan is a pretty damn good songwriter, and he can find a nice tune. Almost everything here is good, except maybe one or two spots where I thought it was a little overdone, too many instruments usually. That being said, most of it is great, especially "Season of the Witch", the standout track from the album.

   Rating: B+