The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

Today's listen is *The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators* by The 13th Floor Elevators, an album I was looking forward to hearing.

This is a wonderfully strange record. It's a bit all over the place, mixing early psychedelic rock with raw garage rock and an almost psychobilly feel in places. There's a real energy to the music, and I particularly enjoyed the rough, slightly chaotic sound. It's not especially polished, but that's part of its charm.

The opening third of the album is excellent. There's some great guitar playing, plenty of attitude and a wonderfully distinctive sound. "You're Gonna Miss Me" is an absolute belter and a fantastic way to open the record. It's raw, catchy and full of energy, exactly the sort of music I enjoy.

Unfortunately, as the album progresses, I found myself losing interest a little. The songs start to sound quite similar, and what initially feels exciting and unusual becomes rather repetitive. There's plenty to enjoy, but I think the album could have benefited from a little more variety. By the end, it felt longer than it needed to be.

That said, I still enjoyed listening to it. There's something very appealing about the band's sound, and I can appreciate how adventurous and unusual this music must have been when it was first released in the 1960s. It's rough around the edges, slightly mad and good fun.

Overall, *The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators* is an enjoyable album with some excellent moments. It starts brilliantly and loses a little momentum as it goes on, but there's enough energy and character here to make it worth a listen. I wouldn't call it a classic from start to finish, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Favourite track: "You're Gonna Miss Me". What a great song! Full of energy, attitude and a fantastic garage-rock sound.

Least favourite track: Nothing particularly bad. The album becomes a little repetitive towards the end, but it's still a fun listen overall.

Album artwork: Very cool, colourful and wonderfully psychedelic. A brilliant cover that perfectly captures the spirit of the music.

The 13th Floor Elevators put “psychedelic” in the album title, but to my ears the music still sounds closer to raw garage rock than the psychedelia I associate with 1967. The electric jug adds a strange bubbling sound, and the band certainly has energy, but I kept expecting the songs to take me somewhere a little more peculiar.

There’s charm in how rough and eager it all sounds. Still, having heard what other bands would do just a year later, I find this less adventurous than the title suggests. That may be an unfair expectation to bring to an early record, but it’s where I end up: happy to hear the beginnings, more excited by what followed.

After I saw the Album Cover, the tags and the titel i expected it to be worse. But wasn't good either

Oh man another 60s psychedelic rock album? That's like, six in a row now.

Hell yeah. I like Easter Everywhere more but the early days definitely deserve major reps.

Admittedly, the jug is quite annoying but they (probably apocryphally) tuned it based on how much weed was in it and that's based.

Review review: the top review guy is the biggest coward I've ever laid eyes on. Roky gets an extra star for old mate.

I actually enjoyed this much more than I thought I would - it's weird and goofy and very dated, but also very listenable. Not something would return to often, but an interesting footnote all the same, probably quite influential.

Sound quality is quite bad. Typical 70s rock

Was looking forward to this one but they really overused that warbling effect in every song

Never heard of this before. It’s very much not my thing but I guess it’s decent for what it is.

You’re Going to Miss Me is such a tune, but I’m not sure that pioneering the electric jug is that much of a boast.

Meandering hippy rock now with added electric jug as an instrument.

I was thinking I might be too generous with my ratings so far, so the generator said here's "The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators"!

Actually I started off thinking it was fine, but by the time I got to Monkey Island I was just waiting for it to be done...

I should really read the Wikipedia summary first, because I didn't know until after listening that the weird sound throughout was an electric jug! I did listen a second time, and I assume it must take crazy skill to play the jug like that. It almost made me add a star, but I'm just not a fan.

This album is psychedelic rock. The electric jug really added to that weird sound. The music isn't insufferable, but it's not my preference.

Pretty incredible how I formed an impression of how this would sound from the name, cover art, and era, and within 10 seconds my worst fears were confirmed. I made it to the third song but gave up then.

Crams a lot of musical sections; mostly blues rock but with added sound effects (2.5-3)

I can't be certain, maybe it's just how the albums have come through to me, but there's a lot of pysch-rock here isn't there? They can't ALL have been super game-changey

Actually psychedelic 😵‍💫
Love how garage-y this sounds. And they’re very passionate about what they’re doing, very sincere. Unique and heavy. Influential.

I understand that this was incredibly influential, it doesn't mean I enjoyed it.
This is however much better than quite a bit of the psychedelic movement.

3 stars since 2.5 isn't an option.

i love psychedelic rock very enjoyable great album art would recommend but nothing incredible or mind blowing

I've been a fan of this album for a long time. There is a good balance between the twisted brain of psych rock and the thumping heart of garage rock. Wild for 1966.