The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter

imagine an album recorded by one of those summer camps for artsy high schoolers but the campers are actually all homeschooled by ren faire fanatics

fascinating but not particularly good

1.7

So you show up at Woodstock on Friday afternoon. Richie Havens kicks it off. Nice. Joan Baez is headlining tonight. Fuck yeah. But the rest of the lineup is full of this absolute dogshit. I don't care enough to read up on these guys, but I do hope they had a nice little career on the ren faire circuit. Side note: After the album ended, the song "Painting Box" came on and it was worlds better than anything on here. Do more like that, you weirdos.

Not for me. Felt like someone making fun of the 60's obsession with renn faire music. But, no...it's just too earnest.

'Your wish is not granted unless it's a fish'; 'He can't dream well b/c of his horns.' The only reason this is more palatable than Pentangle is b/c they're Scottish rather than English and that somehow, tho it's a cluttered mess of Brit-Isle-foppery, moments of genuine mysticism do shine thru. Not nearly enuf tho, and the quirkiness of these tracks deprive the record of what you could call spiritual/mythical experiences. Thing is, I'm not saying there's no folkloric tradition to celebrate from this part of the world. I just go to Astral Weeks for a dosage of that magic, not an album that tries too desperately to be an ancient landmark. I went to a summer camp called Shire Village, of all names, so I can relate to this album art. But I'm not a fucking wizard.

Quirky, remarkable, ground breaking in a way. A difficult listen unless you allow yourself to sink into the strange sonic world of ISB

These folks are amazing. No, definitely not the dirty, talentless hippies in this “band” - I mean all of the great people who wrote one star reviews of this album. While I usually love skewering terrible albums on my own, the community did such a great job, I’m not sure I have anything new to add. So, I curated some of my favorite quotes from the reviews, collected while dutifully listening to the entirety of this soundtrack from purgatory. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, because there will be nothing enjoyable about your listening experience.
• I wish I could go back to when I never knew this album existed.
• It's a good thing they didn't tune the instruments, so it matches the vocals.
• I’d rather listen to the meth head at the bus stop down the road beatbox and fart.
• So many people on the album cover but not one of them stopped to think that maybe this was shit.
• Like a Monty Python spoof of an early Genesis album.
• This is "The Velvet Underground and Nico" for folkies.
• Why did someone think that a recording of a bunch of off-key drunkards in a country pub is something I should listen to before I die?
• No tengo de los champiñones adecuados para escuchar esto. (“ I do not have an adequate amount of mushrooms to listen to this.”)
• Even if you're not a big fan of the kazoo, these fuckers have you covered with panpipes and harpsichords.
• Holy hell..... somebody put the wounded animal singing out of its misery already.
• Like hearing a cancer diagnosis.
• I feel like I’m tied to a post hanging over a fire whilst they dance around in circles singing these songs in their weird cult.
• This is the music folks would listen to before a dragon would come and burn down their thatch roof village.
• I want the creator of the 1001 list of albums to go to jail for this.
• I can’t sing and I can’t play a music instrument so save my life. However, neither would prevent me from being a member of this band.
• I am growing weary of white people.
• Have you ever known you're going to hate an album within the first 10 seconds? No? Try this one.
• You’re in a cult, call your dad.
• Scottish psychedelic folk is exactly as good as it sounds.
• I want to fight everyone on this album cover, including the small children and the dog.
• I regret electricity was wasted to play this in my home.
• No situation really calls for this type of music, unless you're like some magical swamp creature.
• This album should be in the other book: 1001 albums you should avoid at all costs.

This album is not bad at all. It has character and that is not something that you can say about a lot of albums on this list. Sure, it's not exactly what I listen to usually, but it's fun and is respectable.

Who's ready for some naked bonfire dancing?? This music will take you there. This could be the soundtrack to the original Wickerman, the one with Christopher Lee. Will you be part of a ritual sacrifice after listening to this album??...Only time will tell.

Look, I originally gave this a 2 because it felt like there was some musicality here but after reading the 5 star reviews some of you need to be punished. This is not a celebration of world music and they weren't drawing from other cultures or engaging with them in a meaningful way. Please don't give them a 5 because you've never heard a sitar before, we can change you. The song writing is so low effort and I truly despise the Gilbert and Sullivan-esque Minotaur Song.

I think the best I can say about this is that it didn't hurt my ears or offend my senses. But it certainly isn't an interesting album. Perhaps it was influential back in 1968 but does nothing for me in 2026.

I’m personally at a 4, but for the sake of the site, I’m gonna give this a 5 because you’re all fucking cowards.

*This* is the 8th worst album on the site? This weird, medieval-influenced piece of avantgarde music with incredibly loose lyrics, strange sitar work, oddly long held monotone notes, and plucky guitars & harmonica that all feel like they’re on the verge of collapse at any given moment? OK, if I wrote it like that, I might actually get it a little bit, but… that’s different from listening to it.

Giving this album a chance reveals a very strange effect, one that I can’t fully explain, but one that I can mentally comprehend: these tracks all start off with some coherence, before the blend of his longer held notes & the off-kilter rhythm to the instrumentals sort of makes you lose your place & your focus, sweeping you into its weird pacing. While you’re scrambling to find your place & your own rhythm, the loose lyricism present here, with vague allusions that the mind can sort of conjure yet not really comprehend, lingers in the air, since his vocals have a constant presence. This album, through that sense of induced confusion, forces you to interact with it in the exact way that the Incredible String Band intended because of its avant-garde nature; sure, it’s not the most melodically pleasing or the most orthodox style, but I’ll be damned if it’s not strangely compelling, if not hypnotic at times.

I mean, I really can’t tell you a *single* thing about the meaning of these tracks, or if they connect in any kind of fashion other than the soundscape that loosely unites them. I also don’t know if it really matters. This album feels like an instrumental album, but with lyrics written after the fact & vocals taking the place of something else. I think if you can meet this album where it’s at by allowing them to take control, the weird hypnosis of it all will click a lot better than if you try to engage with this as an album meant to be comprehended. This is an album where you *feel* these tracks out, with whatever little of the lyrics you catch meant to supplement the trance of the soundscape. For my tastes, something about it clicked. I can’t really explain why, and normally, I would be more frustrated by that inability to grasp it, but for some reason, that gut feeling is acting as a positive. I *like* this album.

I dunno, maybe the “acid” part of acid folk is carrying a bit more weight here than I thought, but regardless, it’s a very intentionally designed 49 minutes. If it clicks, it clicks, and if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. I understand the 2.15 to a degree, but I think it’s entirely formed out of cowardice towards the strange. I think it’s an album that manages to find an incredible sense of freedom for its time just by being so different. Granted, I don’t really hear how the fuck Led Zeppelin modeled their debut after this at all, but more power to the Incredible String Band for having some kind of influence on them. Apparently, Paul McCartney really liked this album too? If the musicians got “it”, whatever that “it” is, then I think I’m justified in giving this a 4. For the sake of the site, just to try and pull this average out of a bottom 10 hell, I’m gonna give it a 5.

I was begging for the hangman while listening to this

1 ⭐️

big, warm album. like celebrating an unfamiliar holiday at a friend's house.

This is not as bad as reviews claimed it to be. Not to say this is good--it's definitely not--but there's significantly worse albums on this list. Weird and not exactly pleasant to listen to, but at least somewhat interesting as most psychedelic music is. 2/5

more like the Incredibly Shitty Band

Why?

My god I absolutely loathed this album, LOATHED it. This is one of the worst things I have ever heard. Before the first song had ended I was already checking how long was left on the album.

1 star is bloody generous

What the actual f*€#?!

I can’t believe how bad this is. I think the musicians were pulling a prank.