Elephant Mountain

I had never heard of this album or band. What beautiful music! Folky, sometimes with a bluegrass feel, but also a bit psychedelic, sometimes jazzy. I think this is my favorite album that I’ve heard for the first time from this generation. Cool that it is my 100th album!
Very grateful for this find!

Psychedelic Appalachia, a little bit country, a little bit bluegrass, a little bit rock and roll, and a good ol' time.

I don't know whether I like it or not... It's not bad, but it's not good either. It has some folk elements, some rock, blues and a bit of country. I am going to give it 3 stars because I am just confused.

Elephant Mountain was a fine if bland album. The music was generally well done with decent rhythms and nice usage of all the instruments but were either rather bland or were missing something they really could have benefitted from. The main song I'm talking about from the latter complaint is On Sir Francis Drake which i feel really could have benefitted from having lyrics so that it wouldn't become so boring. This album isn't bad but it is really boring in a lot of areas which is why it gets a 2.5.
Best Song: Beautiful
Worst Song: Trillium

An honestly very jam band-y album, which while not unheard of in 1969 by any means, feels oddly out of place in an album format during a period of tight, condensed rock masterpieces. Instead, The Youngbloods seem to go in a different direction of something a bit more messy, with lots of influences from country, jazz, and psychedelia, and while it struggles to make it work for a good chunk of the album, it is commendable. Songs containing more laid out, predictable song structures seem to run away with my heart pretty easily, to the point where I wish it was mainly that, as they are often very pretty, with soft vocals and instrumentals while still having a tiny kick to them to ensure the listener doesn't fall asleep. However, nearly every song that doesn't follow this ideology is often iffy at best. Long, drawn out periods of seemingly random instruments playing with no cohesion or thought, stretched out sections that add nothing to the album, or at best you get a dull folk rock track that leaves far too much to be desired to be a true tip. Sunlight and Ride the Wind are easily my favorites, but the other thirty minutes can have you tuning out and just like that four songs have gone by with nothing to grab the listeners interest. Its an album of potential, but considering they seemed to do very little like this album before or after, mainly reaching for that blues rock crowd, I imagine this faded mainly into obscurity until being included on the 1001 Album list, and I can find very little to say otherwise.

was worried I was in for a snoozefest, and then they started throwing instrumentals in! with interesting arrangements & jamming!

Ok folkkistelu, mut ei sen kovempaa kolistellu. 3/5

On first listen, I heard two outstanding tracks ('Darkness, Darkness' & 'Quicksand') but decidedly average 60's psychedelica for the rest.

On second listen, more of the mediocre songs actually started to annoy me.
Sir Francis Drake has an interesting start but mounts into a blues shuffle that really no-one needs. Many other songs feel like they're experimenting with sounds they don't fully understand.

I heard someone say on this album: "They just sound like the best band from a tiny town," and that's indeed basically it. Nothing special except for the two songs mentioned at the start

Before today I had never heard of the Youngbloods, so I had no idea what to expect. What I wasn't expecting was late 60's psychadelic rock mixed with Neil Young-esque folk rock, and with underpinnings of jazz and blues. I figured they would be some obscure emo/goth band with a name like that. This album was fantastic!

The Youngbloods brought the hammer right from the first song (starting with the fiddle intro and turning into a folk rock number). The lead singers, Jesse Colin Young, and Jerry Corbitt have amazing chemistry, and can harmonize very well in certain numbers. Admittedly, the echoing of lyrics in the song Darkness, Darkness was a bit odd, but a little bit of creative expression never hurt anyone.

Sham is a real rockin' number, and the folk ballad On Sir Francis Drake is beautiful, and really shows the musical talent of the band as a whole.

Overall, an unexpected, and amazing listen today. This is a band that didn't really take off, but 100% had some hidden talent! Apparently, after the band broke up, Jesse went out on a more successful solo career. I may have to go explore some of his catalog now, having heard this stuff!!

Favourite songs: Sham, "Darkness, Darkness", Smug, Beautiful, Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down, Trillium, Quicksand, On Sir Francis Drake

Least favourite songs: Ride the Wind

4/5

Surprised on how terrible this album was...there was nothing appealing about it. 1/5

I love folk rock! This is amazing! I love the Built to Spill vibes. Darkness Darkness is such a DnD song, Smug was great, On Sir Francis Drake was a fire jazz track, love this. Great listen, start to stop.

I hadn't heard of this band before, and I can kind of see why. It's a pleasant enough album to listen to, but none of the songs were particularly memorable or standouts. It was probably lost in the sea of other folk rock albums coming out of America in the 60s.

Darkness Darkness and Smug is a solid 1-2. The middle is pretty meh with the exceptional line "If the world was peanut butter/We'd be sticking by each other".

could take it or leave it really

Genre defying, in a good way! I wasn't sure when this was from, and surprised to find out it was a 60s album. Not my favourite on this list, but interesting and experimental.

The album starts out with a touch of country, rock and psychedelic. Then after the jam session double track 'On Sir Francis Drake' the band moves on to a considerably more mellow mix of songs and instrumental tracks. Stand out tracks for me are 'Smug', 'On Sir Francis Drake', 'Trillium', and 'Sham'.

I like the general sound of this album but somehow nothing ever seems to stick even after repeated listens. It loses its momentum whenever they wander into a looser instrumental jam section. Cute album cover though.

Good album, but not real stand out songs.

A medio camino entre el Country y el Jazz. Me han gustado las más conocidas "Darkness, darkness" y "Sunlight". Otras instrumentales suenan bien, como "Trillium" pero tampoco es un disco que digas que te cambia la vida.

I hadn't heard of this. No immediate standout tracks, but overall I enjoyed it on in the background. Pleasant album.