13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators - 1966
Only 3 albums into this and I get to my first bona fide classic already.
Although the 13th Floor Elevators are considered to be one of the first , if not THE first psychedelia band that isn't really a good representation of their sound. The band called themselves psychedelic and took shedloads of LSD , but thats really where to comparisons to the psychedelia that we know and love today end. They're much rawer and more of a garage band than say something like Barrett era Floyd. To me their sound is kind of sandwiched somewhere between the MC5 ( Even though they came afterwards) and The Rolling Stones.
The two things that really make them sound out is the use of an electric jug , which makes it sound like someone is being obscene with a cookoo clock in the background. The other thing is a genuine fruitcake acid casualty vocalist in Roky Erikson who screams and shrieks his way though the album. Although on the slower tracks such as Don't Fall Down and Splash 1 he calms down and does a good job on them.
This album is stuffed with classic songs , the opener You're Gonna Miss Me the song that opens the album also opens the movie High Fidelity , if you know one song by the 13th Floor Elevators then it's probably that one. Roller Coaster is virtually identical to a Primal Scream song. Reverberation (Doubt) sounds like it could be a JAMC song. In fact listening to this album you begin to wonder which 80s guitar band you'll hear in the next song. Fire Engine is pure garage rock. You Don't Know (How Young You Are) reminds me of an early ballad by The Who , slow but with lots of energy behind it. Kingdom Of Heaven & Monkey Island keep the album at a high standard. The former being a slow droning song the latter being skewed pop with Erikson screeching away to his hearts content. The final song on the album Tried To Hide wants to be The Beatles in one aspect and The Rolling Stones in another , it's also the poppiest song on the album.
This album is solid the whole way through and deserves it's classic status. It's influenced far more music that it's ever credited for and in my opinion Roky Erikson was one of the best frontmen of that era and much better than some others who are almost revered today by some people.
Rating 10/10
Favourite songs - You're Gonna Miss Me , Rollercoaster , Splash 1 ,Reverberation (Doubt) , Kingdom Of Heaven , Tried To Hide