Surrealistic Pillow

A great psychedelic rock record with some bangers. I'm not fond of the ballads but it's still a nice addition to my collection.

Favorite Song: Somebody to Love ; White Rabbit

Some real highlights on this album, where they lean into the psychedelia, Interspersed with some songs that feel like they’ve come from a different band. Overall still great album though

First time listening. Love the psychedelia. Can see this being revised to a full 5 star one day.

The songs with the lady singing are the best. I wish she took the lead in more of them!

I enjoyed this when I listened to it but outside of someone to love and white rabbit I can’t really remember much else

Would definitely put this on again though

3.5

S’alright

Much better than I remember. Like, this is a REALLY great album. Every song is enjoyable and creative, and they provide a wonderfully stoned psychedelic vibe with no gimmicks. I especially love the guitars -- both the gentle acoustic playing and the supersonic acid guitars work well, and seamlessly with one another. Also, "Comin Back To Me" is maybe one of my favorite songs ever.

I knew White Rabbit and Somebody to Love going in. The rest isn’t really my thing but it was decent. The last of the original tracks actually sounded pretty good.

Jefferson Airplane or Mamas and Papas? Mamas and Papas or Jefferson Airplane? There's only one way to find out.... FIGHT!!!

At this distance you're really talking about two songs here: "White Rabbit" & "Somebody to Love". I can't imagine too many people pop this on to hear the sound of "Embryonic Journey"

Those two songs tower over everything else on this album.

It's all over the place really. Monkees style pop in "She Has Funny Cars" and Sun Mommas and Pappas in My Best Friend and all sorts of serious mind expanding 60s silliness in other places.

Comin' Back to Me in particular is the of fey, hippy folk nonsense that could only happen at that time. Self important overwritten lyrics combined with a sort of pretend medieval backing. It hasn't aged well.

1 star for each of the two big hits.

👍

The folky stuff I don’t really care for, but the rockier numbers are well worthwhile. Grace Slick can belt out a tune with the best of them, but sadly she only features heavily on a couple of tracks here. Pity.

This album is both folk and groovy. I've actually heard "White Rabbit" before and I didn't realize who it was by (my favorite song here, by the way). I liked the use of both a female and male vocalist for different songs, it kept the dynamics interesting. Actually, every song featuring the female vocalist as lead was fantastic ("Somebody to Love", "White Rabbit").

Forgettable in the end

Pretty much the sound of the Summer of Love. 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 has that hazy, slightly dreamy psychedelic feel, but it’s still very song-focused. The melodies stick, and the back-and-forth between the vocals keeps things interesting throughout. It’s not perfect all the way through, but the best moments really stand out. Easy to see why it became such a staple of the era.

5
Loved this, knew a couple of the songs but was really surprised how strong it was throughout

Really loved the overall vibe of the album. Some if the folky stuff dragged a bit too long though.

Here's another record from back in the day that I used to love but later put aside when I got into other stuff, and haven't heard in ages.

So much of this is so good. “Somebody to Love" was a hit for a reason; these angry-sounding tracks are what I like best about the Airplane. The intro line "When the truth is found to be lies / and all the joy within you dies" has kind of a contemporary feel, doesn't it. The guitar instrumental "Embryonic Journey" is of course something I've heard here and there since then, which is a good thing. And who can resist "White Rabbit." Sure we've all heard it 40 million times, but hey, it's got both threatening-sounding Grace Slick vocals AND interesting acid flamenco instrumentation. Don't forget to feed your head, kids. Finally, "Plastic Fantastic Lover" is a great song - I either forgot or only just noticed the interesting stuff going on with the bass on this.

“My Best Friend" was a skip track for me back when I listened to this all the time in the 70s. I'm still not a big fan of that song; it's the part of this record that sounds the most like normal mid-60s music, which isn't very interesting to me. But while I used to skip "Today," too, I'm noticing some things with it that I didn't appreciate at the time.

4 stars

There were some songs that I already knew from this record, but I really enjoyed it, and I didn't expect to. This is a combo of everything cool from the 60s psychedelic stuff. Really fun album.

I quite liked "Embryonic Journey", mainly as a relief from Slick's (and others) vocals which I can't stand. Shame it's immediately followed by "White Rabbit" which showcases that vocal at maximum Slick-ness