Yardbirds

This was fine, nothing special though. Ever since the world began was cool, almost proto-metal for the first part, then the transition to jangle pop was unexpected but fun.

На диво альбом більш-менш сподобався, враховуючи що цю гараж\психоделік сцену 60х я не дуже люблю. Тут ще звісно Джеф Бек (до того як він став тим самим Джефом Беком), але вже нема Джиммі Пейджа.

Коротше ок альбом, послухав не без задоволення.

Jaunty bluesy rock n roll straight from the Chuck Berry Bo Diddley recipe book with a few British pop and early pysch touches. The songs are pretty generic and the vocals have nothing going on. Makes sense this band is most famous for what it's former guitar players did next. The guitar really is the star of the show with a snarling dirty sound, he's hurtling through the turnarounds, ripping licks. I don't fully get the hype with Jeff Beck, especially here, it's energetic and tight but there's nothing especially inventive to his playing. Is it the tone?

Stealing this from the top comment because it perfectly encapsulates my feelings on this record:

Great guitar players need a lead singer who can do two of the following three: 1) sing, 2) entertain, and 3) write music. All three are not needed but two of the three are. Pete Townshend found Daltrey who could do 1 and 2. Keith Richards found Mick who can do 2 and 3 and Jimmy Page found Plant who can do 1 and 2.

Keith Relf couldn't do any of the three. The result is excellent guitar playing (Jeff Beck’s in the case of this album) being stranded in a wasteland of songs that, from all other perspectives, are painfully mediocre.

This is kind of a charcuterie board of popular music styles of its time: pop, blues, blues-rock, psychedelic, and annoying forgettable trash. Most of it is in the first several categories, and they're passably good. I find myself enjoying the blues-oriented stuff more than anything else. I have to admit, I got more into the wobbly sheet metal thing on Hot House than I would have thought possible

⭐⭐⭐.5

This one started off kinda interesting for me, with some slight psychedelic rock (Which normally I wouldn't be into, but for some reason was enjoying here).

But whether is just lost steam or I wasn't paying much attention, the rest of the tracklist didn't really wow me. It was fine, but not attention grabbing.

In the past week I've been subjected to three separate projects featuring Jeff Beck and/or Rod Stewart. Faces, Jeff Beck Group, and now Yardbirds. And it all sounds pretty much the same.

aparentemente é uma banda que lançou bons guitarristas e um eric clapton. não dá pra acertar sempre
esse aqui eh sem ele, pelo menos. rockzinho psicodélico regado a guitarrada, mas mei xoxo. nada demais

Very avant-garde psych rock album. Among the variation of the group's members, this is probably the best iteration which produced what is perhaps one of the greatest psych rock albums of all time.

9/10 [KEEP]

I don't have a baseline for this. At face value, it's kind of a whatever 60s album for me. I felt like I was in a fever dream listening to the same song on repeat. 2*

This turned out to be a great surprise: funny themes that really struck a chord with me, especially when I listened to it for the second time at home (there were too many distractions at work!).

The song "I Can't Make Your Way" was my favorite, with "The Nazz Are Blue," "Lost Woman," and "Turn into Earth" also catching my attention.

Anyway, I went and read up on it and learned that Jeff Beck was part of it and that Clapton and Page had also been there. So maybe it makes sense for it to be on this list, and I liked it more than I expected ;-)

At first, I had a hard time understanding why this record is on this list (mainly because I forgot about this band). But then I realized it’s (again) about a white man playing guitar like many great Black musicians before him. But because he is white - and British - he gets a lot of accolades. And yeah, Jeff Beck was a brilliant guitarist, no doubt, and some songs on here are actually worth revisiting. But it’s oh so dissatisfying to read all the critics praise of his style without ever seeing one mentioning his “influences” (aka the musicians he “burrowed” from).

Forgettable

50% Psychedelic and 50% Blues. Would have preferred more of the former but an interesting mix!

I have become a sucker for that 66-68 English psychedelia sweet spot. This isn't all genius but there's a good variety to the sounds they create and I like the way Jeff Beck sounds like he is spilling out from the mixing desk over his bandmates.

Yardbirds!!!! 4/5 #nuffsaid #musicsky #albumsky

You know how Kim Kardashian is famous for being famous? I think the Yardbirds are too. Without the legacies of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds would have been another obscure act buried in a list of British Invasion bands on Wikipedia. But, because we must hear the most famous guitarist-uterus in rock, we get "Roger the Engineer," a 36-minute collection of mediocre-to-bad tracks with occasionally inspired guitar work. The opening track features a melody that rivals anything written by The Shaggs. Even the high points of this record ("Over Under Sideways Down," "Jeff's Boogie") do little to stay in mind.

Not for me. I know Jeff Beck is this guitar god but there's only one good riff on the whole album (that riff drags this up from one star to two).

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

It’s just a super enjoyable blues / rock album. For 1966, this is apparently way ahead of pace – I’m not sure if I hear that “revolutionary” sense to the same degree as other people, but I do think this album is doing it in a way that feels very unique. There’s more of a lean towards the technical side of things whilst keeping some of the aspects of psych rock of the era. Excellent guitar work from Jeff Beck, who we’ll get down the line with a solo album – hopefully, he’ll still shine there. This came out a year before both “Disraeli Gears” & “Are You Experienced?”, so if this album did set a bit of a blueprint for those albums to shine (especially the latter, which I pray we get soon), then it’s a pretty damn good blueprint to take from. I think it’s a pretty breezy 30 minutes overall, with some witty writing, great instrumental work, and good vocals throughout. Occasionally, its ambition falls apart a little bit under the technology of the era, with some layers getting muddied in the mix, but the spirit / vibe of each track is captured really well.

This is a chance to segue to my own mild hell with this album, in which I listened to the first 3 tracks of this in their stereo mix without realizing, before promptly switching to the mono mix and starting over. I think the mono mix is better, obviously, but I sampled a little more of the stereo mix to be safe – there’s some good parts in there (especially the long held note on “The Nazz Are Blue”) but there’s a lot of really awkward choices in there, with a lot of guitar work being mixed OUT of the tracks, including a really baffling panning choice on “Turn Into Earth” that destroys the track entirely. There’s a 2021 alternative mix on Spotify that blends the best aspects of both the Mono & Stereo versions, including an extra guitar solo unheard in either version, and I think that’s the version I might throw into my playlist, since the Mono mix muddies a little too much.

So, yes, it’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5, mostly because I just enjoyed it. The floor here is a 3, especially if this style is a little bit overdone for the mid-1960s, but it occasionally felt closer to the ‘70s and even a little bit of the early 2000s, which was surprising to me. I think it’s worth a listen, I’m glad it’s on the list, and I’m ready for that Jeff Beck solo album when it pops up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I liked the mono version a bit better than the stereo version. But some fun, kinda trippy 60's rock.