(pronounced ’lĕh-’nérd ’skin-’nérd)

fine

Is it a good blues-rock album with actual songs?

Yes.

Can you do better?

Also yes.

Even without Free Bird, this album is great.

Nie wiem, żaden kawałek z tej płyty nie był dobry. Nie był nawet godny zapamiętania, a cała płyta zlała się w jedno. No trudno, może następnym razem.

I’m way above a 5. It’s not quite a 10, but it’s pretty damn close & it’ll probably get there someday.

Let’s address the big elephant in the room first & foremost: the modern-day Ship of Theseus version of Lynyrd Skynyrd that’s touring around without a single original member of the band is racist as hell for continuing to fly that fucking Confederate flag. I have absolutely no love for them, and I suspect, based on the lyricism here, perhaps Ronnie Van Zant would hate what his band has become. I mean, he’s bringing light to inner city issues on “Things Going On”, as well as calling out the Vietnam War, the excess spending of the vanity affair of the Space Race (it was probably worth it though), a quick line in there about climate change, & a callout against lazy politicians. I’m inclined to think he’s about as simple as he proclaims to be on “Simple Man”. I feel like if the plane wreck hadn’t happened, they would’ve probably dropped the flag down the line & he’d have made his stances a bit more clear past “Watergate does not bother me”. Either that, or I’m just naive. Ultimately, I think it’s fine to listen to classic Lynyrd Skynyrd like that. Not the new guys, though.

Now that that’s been addressed… yeah, this fucking kicks ass. No mincing words about it; the only thing stopping this from being a 10 is a little paranoia about “Mississippi Kid”, & a few tracks that aren’t as dazzling as the big 4. They’re still good, & rooted in classic Southern blues standards, but they’re just a little softer on the energy. Regardless, this is an album that wears its inspirations on its sleeve with a band that can fucking play. They don’t miss a single note or beat here, and Ronnie’s got some good range in those naturally twangy vocals of his. He can somehow feel like Jimi Hendrix & Neil Young at the same time, and I don’t know how he does it. A lot of these tracks are very straightforward, leading to the instrumentation & delivery to take charge of the show, and… you just gotta hear it, really. It’s quintessential classic Southern rock that’s far better heard than described.

Hence, something way above a 5. Not quite a 10. It’ll probably get there though. There’s something about “Mississippi Kid” & the weird threatening nature of a character that’s dragging guns with him to Alabama that just has me a bit iffy. I don’t know, maybe I’m just paranoid about the implications. Even past the lyrics, it’s just a little slowly paced compared to the rest of the album. I can’t compliment the entire package enough though; it’s 43 minutes that mostly knock it out of the park, and even with “Free Bird” ending on a fadeout, I can’t complain. It’s very deserving to be on the list.

It was cool, prefer their rock songs over the country ones. Would give 3.5

Much like yesterday's Peter Frampton album, but obviously for very different reasons, I struggle to separate my thoughts about the music and the band's personal(?) legacy. There's some all-time classics on this record, but it's tough to endorse this with my whole chest.

Favorite track(s): Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Free Bird

Heard before
Previous rating: 6/10

free birb

4
The best kind of boomer rock. The solo on free bird is one of the rare bits of guitar wankery that actually is incredibly cool

It's ok, ballard heavy country rock

Yeah pretty much perfect. The guitar is so good and the use of blues with country to make a new genre is super cool. I love this album and will listen to it many years to come

I generally can’t stand southern rock stuff like this but I do like Simple Man and it has that song from Happy Gilmore lol

I enjoyed this album

I am from Florida and therefore basically obligated to like this album. It's a good thing a lot of the tracks hold up, then. Side A starts off with a fairly weak track in "I Ain't The One" before giving us not one, not two, but three songs that hold legendary status in the rock canon. Side B, surprisingly, holds up in comparison with two pretty good rock tracks. "Mississippi Kid" is a straight blues song that feels slightly out of place on this album, but isn't terrible. And "Free Bird" is...well, "Free Bird". These tracks add up to a classic of an album that deserves its place in the classic rock canon. It's no Dark Side of the Moon, but it never needed to be. Are the lyrics a little dumb? Yes. Are a couple of the tracks a little weak? Yes. Is this still a classic album? Hell yes. Political stances aside, this is quite possibly the greatest Southern album ever recorded.(Most of the blues greats that gave this album it's sound came before the album era).

This album is ranked #5 of 30 albums for 1973. Other 1973 albums rated by me:
The Dark Side of the Moon(1/30)-5
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road(2/30)-4
Let's Get It On(4/30)-5
Band On The Run(6/30)-5
Catch a Fire(8/30)-4
Head Hunters(10/30)-4
Tres Hombres(11/30)-4
Raw Power(12/30)-4
Countdown to Ecstasy(13/30)-3
Selling England by the Pound(15/30)-4
Paris 1919(25/30)-3

Déjà écouté avant.

Top : Free Bird
Flop : Mississippi

Tyyk my y whyly ty wyrk yyt thyt thys wys yctyylly thy ylbym tytly

Het album schotelt gelijk wat powerrock voor. Ik krijg direct zin in de rest. Maar Lynyrd is veelzijdig, dus ik krijg daarna wat rustiger werk, ook gelijk als introductie van de lange-lettergrepenterreur. Zoals bekend, trekt dan al snel mijn energie weg. Net als bij typische amerikaanse klanken. Want als de plaat virtueel is omgedraaid, laten ze het me weten ook. Deze band komt uit Amerika. Maar ook Amerikanen kunnen veranderen. Dat doen ze 5 minuten voor het einde. Het tempo komt er in, en de instrumenten krijgen het woord. Eén bak energie. Dat had ik graag een heel album gehoord.

Free Bird is obviously a 5/5, but I feel like the rest of the album is more of a 4/5 than a straight 5/5. A great listen anyhow.

Not bad as far as Southern Fried Rock goes. Some good guitar licks and reasonable tunes, although the lyrics didn’t always do it for me, and things tended to drag a bit towards the end……..