The Band

Oh, where did it go wrong? Most of the songs don't have an awful lot of staying power, unless your style is old history musing with the occasional love song here and there (that goes far from being intimate and sometimes becoming downright James Brown sexual). Just listen to Look Out Cleveland and King Harvest (which, I'll admit, is somewhat relatable, as most of my family worked in the fields back in the day). The instrumental is amazing rockabilly-esque Americana and organ-led boogie, but it's weighed down by the lyrics of some American history I'm too European to understand. And that's how most of the album is. The band is still at the top of its game, but the themes tackled on most tracks here are just something I can't listen to daily.

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

Not too much to say, honestly; just some really nice tunes across the board here. It’s not quite as good as “Music from Big Pink” was, but I think they’re trying to do different things. This feels like it leans a bit more into Americana & folksier tones as opposed to the unique soundscapes they were trying to establish before. Instrumentally, there’s a good twang to everything, feeling like what would happen if Creedence Clearwater Revival took some sensibilities from Mike & The Mechanics. It’s a strange comparison, but if you’ve heard both, I think it fits. The organ work is really nice throughout, the drums have a slightly unclean tone that really works, and the guitars sound great. Nothing ever does too much, and it all comes together nicely. Vocally, they all nail it here; Rick Danko sounds like mixing Randy Newman with Phil Collins, Levon Helm can kill a held note & add sorrow into it, and Richard Manuel’s deeper tones really blend well with the others.

Lyrically, a lot of these tracks feel character-focused, which I tend to appreciate. The only one that I’m obviously a bit iffy on is “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, which I can easily admire for the instrumentation, structure & vocal work; it’s objectively a great track. Much like “Sweet Home Alabama” though, it feels like it’s been repurposed by the worst people you know, and unlike “Sweet Home Alabama”, there’s really not much of a way to ignore the Confederacy-shaped elephant in the room. Even if you take the charitable view that it’s just portraying a sympathetic viewpoint of a poor Southern life after the Civil War’s end, there’s still something that feels too apologetic & vibrant towards ‘old Dixie’ for my tastes. Like I said though, it’s objectively a great track. Not a playlist one, at least for me, but still. Honestly, my favorite track here is actually “Rockin’ Chair”, but perhaps I’m just a sucker for a well-told retirement story.

So, why a 4.5 then & not a flat 5 like their debut album? It’s a few things; I think “When You Awake” is a little too intentionally empty in its lyrics to get the full breadth of the track, I think “Jawbone” is a little hard to follow with the constantly shifting time signature, and I can’t quite shake the feeling that the album can’t quite balance how serious & how silly it wants to be. For every tale about retirement from the sea life or farming unions, you’ll get a track about how much they really want their fishing rod to be grabbed & how they want their lady to dip their doughnut into his tea. It’s not that big of a deal, and the album does need the variety, but it does feel a little skewed both ways.

All of that said, it’s an obvious bump up – it’s a really good album, it’s pretty easily digestible, and it’s catchy as fuck too. Even if you can’t get behind “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, the rest of the album more than proves their worth. It’s a breezy 44 minutes, & I really enjoyed it. It’s a 4.5 that I’ll easily bump up to a 5, and I’m glad it’s on the list to show these guys weren’t a one-album wonder.

I’m generally not a fan of the 60s/70s southern rock wave. This is an exception though. I think what sets it apart for me is the superior musicianship (a 6/4 song!). Cripple Creek is just a great one to sing along to. Plus, these guys look like they slept in a train box car for a month on that album cover, so extra points for commitment to the genre.

Like, if the The Dead could tune their instruments and carry a tune. Pretentious in its SERIOUS commitment to lack of pretentiousness. I could do without it, and we already heard The Weight, right?

Ok - this is nice. Lovely warm sound. Nothing particularly original going on, but the production and musicianship is spot on.

Solid 3

So here's a second album by The Band. The first time around, I thought the story and the result were pretty nice, but this is just more of the same. The only new thing: Robbie Robertson (sounds like his parents hated him) is following in the footsteps of his mentor Bob Dylan and now writes songs that only really shine as covers (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”). I didn’t even notice what came after that song - apparently, it was so unremarkable that it didn’t stand out over breakfast. So, a solid 3/5.

A bunch of Canadians cos playing gas Southern Americans should be rubbish, but this album is pure gold. Every single song incredible. Possibly a few lyrics that haven't aged brilliantly, but everything else in terms of tunes, arrangements, playing, generally vive ia A+++.

This is a very good album. 4 stars at least. It's interesting how the different members of the band share leading vocals (not Robbie Robertson, though).

I like most of the songs here (definitely, no filler). In particular, I enjoyed: "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down", "Up On Cripple Creek" (probably my favourite), "Across The Great Divide", "Whispering Pones", or "The Unfaithful Servant".

Overall, this is 4,5 stars (I'll probably save the 5 stars for "Music From The Big Pink").

Who would have thunk that the band with the most generic name on the planet would produce the most generic music on the planet?

Enjoyed it, on board with what they were trying to do. If I could go half stars I would do 3.5, but in this case we are rounding down as it just didn't quite get all the way to being a round up candidate.

I love The Band, this album not so much. Whispering Pines is absolutely breathtaking. Wish the rest of the album had been just as perfect.

Top tracks: Up On Cripple Creek, Whispering Pines, Rockin’ Chair

The moment the first song started I immediately thought of a Disney movie. That’s the energy I am getting—like feel-good, everything-is-going-to-be-okay energy. In certain songs and instruments, I’m reminded a little of The Beatles and some other bands that I can’t think of right now, but they feel like a mash-up of different bands yet while retaining a unique sound and voice. They’re fun and I really like the energy in here. Each song is so unique and different and you don’t know what you’re going to get.

Sans 'The Weight,' The Band's self-titled second still leaps & perfects the power of Music from Big Pink, a very good record but not this sort of thing. Their closest rivals would be Creedence, but The Band is more in touch w/ the spirituality & religiosity of this country. Politics are not front & center, e'en on a track like 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down': 'I swear by the mud below my feet / You can't raise a Kane back up / When he's in defeat.' In other words, steeped in the Bible like Emerson/Melville, these Canadiens + Levon Helm (Elaine, Arkansas) don't write pious or believing music, they sing rhetorically powerful & religious music, secular hymns vibrating w/ all the sharking urgency of The Great Awakenings. I shake too, unbelievingly.

Classic and timeless masterpiece. These songs never seem to age, they're still as good as ever 55 years on. The Band decided to pivot from the common Psychedelic and Hard Rock from that era and basically decided what a large part of the 70's would sound like. Beautiful singing here and the interplay between the bandmates is great. It's just one of those evergreen records.

This is a folky country-adjacent record with some grooviness to some of the songs. A lot of it was quite catchy. It felt pretty same-y for most of it, though.

Tidstypiskt album

Sure

aaaaI've been listening to the hits from this album for half my life, to the point where I take them for granted and they can sound a little corny to me, but when I step back there is definitely a grandeur to them. This time through I liked the lesser-known tracks better, helped me focus more on their sound apart from Dylan and the whole scene.

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It is definitely one of the greatest albums in Americana, and beyond its major hits it remain catchy as hell.

9/10 [KEEP]

Enjoyed a few songs but can't remember anything else about it. I guess that sums it up 🤷🏻‍♀️

3 ⭐️