1001 Albums Summary

Music today is very formulaic, often built with a mechanical sense of order. This album stands in direct opposition to that. It is chaos, specifically emotional chaos. Listening to it can feel jarring because the music does not follow a familiar structure or resolution to me. Instead, it moves like an emotional outburst that constantly shifts and evolves until it finally ends. It’s of course still deliberate but follows a more unconstrained folksy feely format. Almost primal way of performance (which is not a criticism). What stands out most is the fusion of styles. There is a clear blend of Woodstock-era rock, blues, and something closer to bluegrass, and I find myself leaning more toward the bluegrass influence. Still, the genre distinctions almost feel secondary. The album does what it has to until it finds release. I am used to music where the artist shapes the music to be as accessible and digestible as possible for the audience. This album does the opposite. It feels unconcerned with ease or clarity and instead functions as a pure release. That lack of restraint is what makes it unsettling. I can’t help but imagine polishing many areas of the songs but I suppose the chaos is part of the beauty.

Is this album provocative, rebellious, culture defiant, fused with a slam poetry style presentation? Maybe. Does this connection to self identification, or lack thereof, with culture at that time mean it is artistically deep, innovative, or lyrically complex? Not in this case. I was disappointed because this album has such raving reviews. Saying “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” is powerful, and many revere it as one of the greatest opening lines ever. But then go nowhere with it after? At face value it was attempting to push boundaries, but stating provocative things in a punky voice is just stating the obvious. The envelope was nudged. I think…

Interesting because it was unexpected. I’d describe this album as a set of rejected, deconstructed blues songs from the 1950s, played on instruments from the ’70s. It’s the kind of music you can tap your foot to after swinging out the screen door of a trailer home, settling in by a trash-can fire, with people who lost their teeth 20 years ago.