Grateful Dead
Aoxomoxoa - Warner Brothers 1969
Tracks: 1. St. Stephen / 2. Dupree's Diamond Blues / 3. Rosemary / 4. Doin' That Rag / 5. Mountains Of The Moon / 6. China Cat Sunflower / 7. What's Become Of The Baby / 8. Cosmic Charlie / 9. Clementine Jame (Live)* / 10. Nobody's Spoonful Jam (Live)* / 11. The Eleventh Jam (Live)* / 12. Cosmic Charlie (Live)*
Comments:
I used to listen regularly to the Grateful Dead, and I especially liked both "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty", so it was natural to give the predecessor to these two 1970 albums,"Aoxomoxoa", a chance.
I was soon obvious that "Aoxomoxoa" was much in the same vein as its two successors, but also that the songs are generally less tightly structured. The songs draw both from folk and blues, while the electric approach is less in focus. There is also a great variety in the songs, both in terms of structure and genre.
The best tracks, such as "St. Stephen", "Dupree's Diamond Blues", "Mountains of the Moon" and "Cosmic Charlie" is easily on par with the best in the subsequent albums; especially "Mountains of the Moon" is beautiful and a great favorite.
The acapella song "What Becomes of the Baby" is probably to much a timepiece for most listeners; especially considering its length of more than 8 minutes.
The three bonus studiojams are interesting, but not tracks you necessarily need to return to.
A fine album which , however, does not quite match its great successors.
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