The Byrds – FIFTH
DIMENSION
There’s a sprawling
double album featuring a curly-haired man with a trendy scarf on its cover that
hangs like a fateful ghost over this year, but come on. Fifth Dimension is a classic, and the best proof that only The
Beatles could rival these Americans for going to places nobody had explored
before. Fifth Dimension is folk-rock
pushed to spacey extremes.
But you get bored
talking about what is groundbreaking and what is not. It’s the songs that
matter, and I don’t think I know too many albums that can beat the seven-song
stretch that opens this album. From the jangly title track to the space-rock
epic “Eight Miles High”, this is all phenomenal quality. And somewhere in
between I lose it completely to the David Crosby-sung “What’s Happening?!?!”
that has a vocal melody that should be lazy but oddly isn’t.
Not that what follows
is any less fascinating. “Captain Soul” is a groovy instrumental that takes you
places, and that vacuum-cleaning last track is, you will one day discover, a
perfect ending for an acid trip. ‘Fascinating’ is indeed the only word here.
