The United States of America

Music both wild and stormy yet soothing and wistful. It somehow sounds very of-the-time for the 60s and yet decades ahead of its time, as any good experimental album should. It’s obviously weird, but I’m pretty impressed and plan to return.

This album was definitely weird (mostly psychedelic, some rock and electronic elements). There was a lot going on, and it was very eerie and unsettling for the most part. I guess I liked that part of it, the mystery and unease of it all. For example, "The American Metaphysical Circus" started off kind of cheesy with a circus-style instrumental, but then the vocals kicked in and they were dark (it was probably my favorite part of the whole album). I would say the music was interesting and unique and is another level of psychedelia.

Me sorprendió para bien y me sorprende bastante que este tan bajo calificado. Yo creo que es culpa de que en Spotify solo te muestra la versión extendida y la gente piensa que hicieron un álbum TAAAN largo. Me gustó muchísimo, en particular la voz de la vocalista es hermosa y tiene una producción re interesante y muy adelantada (porque muchas canción suenan a música de los 90/early2k). Lo único que critico son esos efectos de sonido tipo circo que por momentos suenan muy desentonados con la canción.

Although I’ve often read about this album, I’ve never actually listened to it before. This is a wild mix of electronic music, psychedelic rock and folk. I can immediately see why the album was only moderately successful at the time yet went on to become a cult classic and prove extremely influential. There’s so much going on that it will take you a long time to tire of listening to it. Therefore, this rating should be regarded as provisional.

The first couple of tracks are awful, but it gets slightly better. I'm never going to listen to it again but if people are talking about it well I'm glad I can input to the conversation that I don't like it.

Listened before? No

Familiar with the artist? No

Thoughts:
- After the first couple of songs this was going to be a 1 or 2. Thankfully it got better, or at least less offensive to the ears, as it went along.
- Still not something I'm interested in listening to again, though I did like a lot of the lyrics.

Wanted to give it 1 star. Then I saw all the sad Americans and people who can't accept songs outside of their comfort zone in the reviews and had to pump it up some stars.

I have never listened to this record but have seen it pop up a few times here and there. Reviews seem to be either love it or hate it. That kind of thing is always exciting to hear for the first time.
Definitely interesting. I sort of question the idea of making the opening track sound like a circus because I feel like that give you the wrong impression for the rest of the album. It's actually a lot less weird that you'd think after reading some of the reviews. I don't get the one star reviews, it's actually pretty standard psychedelic rock from the 60s. Sure the last song kind of goes off the rails a bit, the Number 9 comparisons are apt but at least this keeps some sort of semblance of structure to it. The electronics used were certainly novel at that point and they are well used for what they were in the 60s. I feel like they made a good album here and succeeded at what they were trying to accomplish. Overall I feel like this is a good album to include on this list because it is unique enough to sort of stand out but it isn't so weird that it is unrepresentative of the time or genre. 3.75/5.

First, I was disappointed because I thought it was The Presidents of the United States of America, and the noticed it's from the late 60s. Great, trippy hippy stuff... and tried to keep an open mind. The 1st track was WTF!? Glad to know that the whole album isn't a murder clown soundtrack. By track 4 I was kind of starting to dig it. It's a weird album, and I prefer the female vocalist but it's an interesting listen.

I you chose to open an album with atonal, and non-rythmic, fake, badly tuned radio sounds for that long, you really, really, need to provide something of value for the rest of the album. These guys did not. A mix between experimentation and even worse The Beatles immitations. Apparently avant-garde, but closer to tuneless.

I hate when Spotify lists all the songs from modern reissues because then it makes it seem a lot longer when in reality this album is just under 40 minutes. And those 40 minutes are really fun and creative, I definitely felt like I was tripping listening to this album and is a great example of psych rock. This album has aged a bit with production choices giving it an older sound especially with some of the vocal recordings and it did start a bit slow, but all in all fun listening

Sadly the UK is better at prog rock than the USA.

Woah... this is very easily one of the best albums I've ever heard in my entire life. When I saw the cover and name of the band I had originally assumed it would be another rock record from the late 60's that would come and go for me but I was so wrong.
The way this self titled record of a band named after The United States Of America is targeting all the government corruption, problems with this system, and speaking on the general evils of the nation hits really hard. What's crazy is how well this album from 1968 stands up to this day.
Sonically, this project has some of the trippiest elements in it. Easily one of the best pioneering psychedelic albums out there for sure.

An odd one, but I kinda liked it.

Had its moments but also much noice pollution.
Fav track:”Stranded in time”

I don't know if this album grew on me, or that the second half of the album was SIGNIFICANTLY better. Either way, the second half bought it an extra star from me.

The first half had me thinking "This is what Jefferson Airplane would sound like if they sucked." Fortunately, that didn't last, and when they started doing something unique to their own band, I really enjoyed it

⭐⭐⭐

Not the worst ever, just some odd sounding late 60s psych. Like the Beatles if they sucked. Redeemable for a 2 though

Not my cup of tea. Not terrible, but sounded like circus music at times. 2/5

It started out very weird and then kinda levelled out, but at no point did I feel like I'd really recommend it to someone.

Also, what a terrible name for a band.

I didn’t like the first track at all but it picked up after that. It’s not an album that’s going to live long in the memory but it was an enjoyable enough listen.

Top Track - Where Is Yesterday