82. Moby Grape - Moby Grape (1967)























Track Listing

1. Hey Grandma
2. Mr Blues
3. Fall On You
4. 8.05
5. Come In The Morning
6. Omaha
7. Naked If I Want To
8. Someday
9. Ain't No Use
10. Sitting By The Window
11. Changes
12. Lazy Me
13. Indifference

Review

This is such a critically loved album that I wonder if there is anything wrong with me. In fact I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with this album, or particularly right. I am just not that crazy about it, no tracks seem to stand out that much and for an album which is considered the pinnacle of psychadelia by the AllMusic guide I really don't like it as much as many other psych albums by other bands, like Country Joe and the Fish or The Greatful Dead.

That said there is nothing particularly wrong with it. It just sounds a bit pedestrian, it is technically allright and it can be quite funny lyrically, but again it is mostly just allright. It just gives me an overwhelming feeling of blah. It is also one of those practically formulaic 3 minute long tracks pop-album. The longest track here is 4 minutes, and you need some self-indulging 6 minute crap at least in your stoner/acid albums.

There are some good songs here, Omaha is particularly infectious with a very original intro, but of course other people were doing much more original intros then, like the Beatles or the Beach Boys. Moby Grape by Moby Grape just doesn't seem to stand out in any particular way. I've read all the critics who seem to love it and say that it still sounds fresh today... I'm sorry but it doesn't. It sounds like late 60's psychadelia, it only sounds modern in the sense that there are loads of retro bands today, but you can still identify it as a bit of the 60's.

I don't know, I just don't get it. If you do be sure to drop me a comment. Napster doesn't have it so buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Omaha
2. Sitting By the Window
3. Indifference
4. Naked, If I want To

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

Notice that one of the members is giving the finger on the cover of the album. It was banned in some places because of this.

From Wiki:

Alas, their label (Columbia) chose to release ten (!) of the thirteen songs as singles ("Fall on You"/"Changes", "Sitting By the Window"/"Indifference", "8:05"/"Mister Blues", "Omaha"/"Someday" and "Hey Grandma"/Come in the Morning") which may have diluted the power of the entire album. By the time of their 1968 followup (Wow) the group had virtually completed their disintegration.

Nevertheless, as Gene Sculatti and Davin Seay write in their book San Francisco Nights (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985 and out of print), Moby Grape "remains one of the very few psychedelic masterpieces ever recorded," while the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said their "debut LP is as fresh and exhilarating today as it was when it exploded out of San Francisco during 1967's summer of love." In 2003, the album was ranked number 121 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.


WHY?!