The Gilded Palace of Sin

Even if it's snot my taste, I must admit the mastery and influence that so clearly seeped through into so many genres

Maybe I would have been more into this had they been called the Flying Chalupa/Al Pastor/Torta/Crunchwrap Supreme Brothers?

Wheels & Hot Burritos really get me going.

Love these weird dudes

Enjoyable, old school sort of feeling.

The Flying Burrito Brothers?!? The Gilded Palace of Sin?!?

Based on the name of the band and album alone, I'm going to start this off giving them 5 stars and deduct as I listen, if necessary. Amazing names

No specific point reduction notes, but still pretty good.

3.75

Not really my type, but I can listen to it in the background

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5, and I refuse to be shamed for it.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again; I’m a sucker for old country music like this. I’m also fully biased, and I’ll admit that every single time. I feel justified in bumping this up to a 5 though – I thought this was a really well done blend of country music with a bit of rock/psychedelic rock-driven influence that blended the best of both worlds, while still feeling distinctly like a country album. It sticks pretty closely to the country side, and I suspect that’s why this album has such a low average rating on the site, but when this album chooses to let loose (especially so on “Hot Burrito #2”) and lean into the rock side, it really opens up.

That’s not to say the country side of this is bad at all – the lovely sound of the steel guitar behind some more rock-driven instrumentation is like, almost heaven for me. Lyrically, I can see the complaint that some of this is rather basic, but like… what country music isn’t basic at a pure surface level? It’s about the imagery, and this album does a pretty solid job of setting the imagery throughout, enhanced further by the despair in the vocals (which thankfully, get less nasally as the album moves along). I thought every instrumental did a pretty good job of setting an emotional tone as well, even if it did enter a sort of homogeny on a few tracks.

I don’t know how many more times I’ll have to justify giving old country music such high ratings, but for my money’s worth, this album earned it – I thought it had a nice energy, some good variance in the subject matter, and the soundscapes are right down my alley. I can totally understand someone else giving this a 3, or even a 2 if they despise country music to hell… but I’m at a 5, and I do not care. Send all complaints to the people who raised me on this type of music.

I would have loved to be there when they chose this name for the band, it sounds like a fun meeting. Aside from that, there was nothing that interesting.

A band I knew of because of the goofy name, but had never listened too. Some stunning harmonies straight off the bat, and, whilst the quality isn't quite there across the entire album, there are definitely some tracks here that will go into regular rotation.

Better than all the other white-guy 60s rock? Hard to say that it's more worthy than, say, K-pop or, oh, I don't know, the biggest selling Japanese artist ever. But very much enjoyed.

Not as good as I remember. Burrito deluxe is a much more memorable album with better hit songs. Lots of country rock albums from this era that are better.

nothing special, cool little country album

I might have given this a baseline three stars, but Do Right Woman is a great song and their performance of it here is tragic. Overall bland country rock. It’s hard for me to believe this was even groundbreaking in 1969. Not sure why it’s considered significant.

Sounds exactly like the music that my Uncle Gordie often plays in his shed aka The Blue Lite Lounge up on the west coast of Newfoundland. Yes b'y, s'alright I s'pose.

March 24, 2024 (after dark)

HL: "Sin City", "Do Right Woman", "Dark End of the Street", "Wheels", "Hot Burrito #2"

I'm honestly shook at how well James Carr's "Dark End" works as a country ballad. I'm not sure why: Ray Charles did the soul -> country manoeuvre and it worked out just fine.

I've got a lot of 60's country-esque records in the last couple months, including two The Bands, a Neil Young and a very underrated Beau Brummels release. Not sick of them yet!

Coincidentally, the past few month, I’ve started dipping my toes in Gram Parson’s tragically smaller-than-it-should-be discography. I hadn’t listened to this one yet. I loved it.

I used to hear about The Flying Burrito Brothers and I think the name made me feel like they were a novelty country group more akin to Homer and Jethro. No shade on Homer and Jethro, as I have a particular fondness of especially Jethro from his association with Steve Goodman. But it prevented me from checking out the Burrito Bros. A shame, as I’ve been learning how good they were.

Christine's Tune starts the album and it's VERY country sounding. It gets worse from there. Sin City is a straight up country song. I almost never look up a band or album before listening because I want to formulate my own ideas, but I am *not* subjecting myself to listening to any country music.

So I looked it up and it's Gram Parsons, who people somehow constantly label as a "rock" artist, but who, in my opinion, sounds indistinguishable from any country music snippets I've ever heard.

In summary, this album is trash.

I’m quite stoned and this is really good!

Kinda pre-country rock and a bit of an Eagles vibe. Pretty slow overall and not really my thing. They do get an extra star for their name. 2/5

I love when someone does something refreshing with country music, even if it was already over 50 years ago.
Wondering why so many have returned to the basic old style if this is where it could've headed