1968, The Year in Review, P4

The Next 10 Albums, for My Top 30 Albums of 1968

1968 seems to me a pretty “flat” year in terms of quality, meaning that there are a lot of very good albums, with not much difference in quality between the large part of them. After my favorite four (which I’d probably rank Astral Weeks, Beggars Banquet, The Beatles, and Initials B.B.) there’s not a large separation between the rest of my top 20. On a different day, I could easily sequence them entirely differently.

Likewise for the difference between the following 10 albums that complete my Top 30 and the remaining 14 from my Top 200 of the decade who didn’t make the cut.  (That’s right, 1968 alone had over 40 albums on my Top 200 of the decade.)  I view most of these albums as being roughly equivalent in their excellence.  In the end, I tended to make final cuts with the goal of inclusion of as many artists as possible.  So I left off Simon and Garfunkel, Cream, the Kinks, the Byrds, CCR, the Mothers of Invention and others who already had representation higher up in other Top 30s of the year.  Even after that, the decisions weren’t always easy.

Note: Some of this commentary is adapted from that in No Hype No Trends Music’s 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.

As always, you can jump to the playlist at the bottom of each post to listen while you read.

Within each tier (Top 6, Next 6, etc.), all albums are listed roughly chronologically (all release dates from Wikipedia, unless otherwise noted).

Genre Focus: Tropicália

Brazil’s Tropicália movement accounts for three albums from my Top 30 of 1968 (plus one from my Top 6), so I’d say it warrants special attention. I’ve grouped these three albums together, out of chronological order.

Various Artists
Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis

Released 1968/07

The Tropicália movement—which merged Brazilian traditional and avant-garde musical forms with foreign styles, such as psychedelic and blues music—produced perhaps the most significant body of what we Americans call “world music” from the late ‘60s through the mid-‘70s. Although in theory the movement both came to fruition and ended in 1968, the core members of the movement—including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, and Tom Zé—have produced a rich diversity of music across a vast number of excellent albums throughout subsequent decades.

Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis is perhaps the place to start your Tropicalia collection, as it features many of the headliners of the movement, and served at the time as their collective artistic statement. Each of its songs is filled with wonderful embellishments, from the opening church organ and bicycle bell of Gilberto Gil’s “Miserere Nobis,” to the sitar added to Os Mutantes’ “Bat Macumba” and the burst of cascading strings that completes the opening of Costa’s rendition of Veloso’s “Baby”—perhaps the most well-known and best song on the album. (It would later be featured on Costa’s solo debut.)

The songs throughout are animated, catchy, and entertaining. Less precious than British psychedelia yet more colorful than the gritty American version, the Tropicalia on display here is easy to love—even without taking into account the Portuguese lyrics.

The Tropicália movement was both artistic and political; the excesses of their musical experimentation and audacious live performances were a slap in the face of Brazil’s military dictatorship of the time, and both Veloso and Gil would find themselves in prison before the year was up, and exiled not long after.

Listen to more Tropicália.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 277
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 011

Then again, if you know enough about Tropicália to know you want to plunge on in, a few individual albums from Veloso, Costa, Gil, Os Mutantes, or Zé might serve you just about as well.   Here are two great places to start:

Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso

Released 1968

One of the leaders of Brazil’s Tropicália movement, Caetano Veloso has released many worthwhile albums, probably none more historically significant than this self-titled album, his first as a solo artist (his recording debut was alongside Gal Costa).  Indeed, the name of the musical movement he helped inspire was taken from the first track on this album, which he intended as a sort of Brazilian Sgt. Pepper.

I had heard of Veloso—first during college, when David Byrne released his Brazil Classics compilations, and again in the late ‘90s, when there seemed to be a renewed interest in the Brazilian scene—but hadn’t explored much further until the retrospective listening project that has become this website.  I don’t speak a lick of Portuguese, of course, but the lyrics on this album (and in his work in general) are supposedly excellent.

The music, thankfully, speaks for itself:  original and captivating.  Many of Veloso’s career highlights are here, in full psychedelic glory—“Tropicália,” “Anunciação,” the catchy “Soy Loco por Tí América,” “Superbancana,” “Alegria, Alegria” and more. I probably should have ranked the album higher.

Listen to more Caetano Veloso.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 218
• 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)

Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Gil

Released 1968/early

One of the leading figures in the Tropicália movement, Gil masterfully blends Brazilian music with American and English rock influences in this excellent album.  Album opener “Frevo Rasgado” features a brass band and a spritely vocal line, a flute and crisp eclectic guitar share the spare arrangement of “Coragem Pra Suportar,” the crowd-rouser “Pega a Voga, Cabeludo” is propelled by hand clapping, and “Procissão” rides a catchy groove for all its worth.  An excellent Tropicália album, and a career highlight for Gil.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music, bubbling under the top 3000 albums of all time

More albums from my Top 30

Tropicália lesson’s over. Here’s the rest of the Top 30.

The United States of America
The United States of America

Released 1968/03/06

The only album by this quite original band, the eponymous The United States of America showcases a wide variety of styles, from the driven psychedelic outbursts of “Hard Coming Love” and “The Garden of Earthly Delights” to the dreamy “Cloud Song” and “Love Song for the Dead Ché,” both of which seem to float suspended in air.

Playing rock without guitar, the band was a pioneer in the field of electronic rock, using synthesized sounds to both replace the aggressive thrust of guitar and to weave rich, subtle textures on the quieter pieces. Some songs feature sound collages, marching bands, string quartets, and calliope. The influence of experimental classical music composer Charles Ives—known for works that sound as if multiple orchestras are playing completely unrelated pieces simultaneously—looms large. The band could create moments of musical chaos and discord, juxtaposed with stretches of blissful tranquility.

Despite some moments of excess (to be expected, after all), The United States of America is a great addition to any collection of experimental or psychedelic ‘60s rock.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 145
• 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 081
• The Wire: 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (When No One was Listening)

The Zombies
Odessey & Oracle

Released 1968/04/19

The Zombies’ Odessey & Oracle is a great example of the sunnier British approach to psychedelia, as opposed to the grittier American version.  In America, psychedelic music crawled out from the garage; in English it emerged transformed from the studio like a gorgeous, delicate butterfly.

The guy who designed the album sleeve may not have known how to spell, but the contents within from the band were top-notch. You can still hear echoes of this album in many a Baroque chamber-pop album from our own century. The tunes here flutter and dance with majestic melodies and intricate arrangements—from the Beach-Boys-esque “Care of Cell 44” to the spritely bounce of “I Want Her She Wants Me” to the steady piano chords that provide the foundation for “This Will Be Our Year.”

Sadly, the album flopped (as so many of the best ones do), and the group, already discouraged, disbanded.  Then two years later, “Time of the Season” became a surprise smash in America—too late, of course.

Listen to more Zombies.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 059
• 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 018
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 080
• Paste 60 Best Albums of the 1960s, No. 013

Silver Apples
Silver Apples

Released 1968/06

I picked up both Silver Apples albums on CD during my grad school years (mid-‘90s) and really dug them.  Their propulsive electronics seemed to me to take the noisy psychedelic warbling of bands like the 13^th Floor Elevators (whose albums I picked up around the same time) and launch it into a more unique, and far more compelling realm, more in line with the Stereolab discs I was listening to at the time, too.  Both albums by this drums-and-electronics duo are fascinating listens.

“Oscillations” may be the song that seems to get all the critical props, but I’d place it somewhere in the middle of the pack here. “Seagreen Seranades” and “Misty Mountain” pulse and throb over a churning electronic beat; “Lovefingers” takes it down a notch to a gentler, foot-tapping pulse. Best of all, “Program” churns along blissfully, embellished with various sampled snippets.

Like many a modern-day electronic music track, the songs here push steadily forward as if in a trance, without chorus-verse-chorus-bridge harmonic shifts. The Silver Apples were unlike anything else of their time—an absolute must listen if you don’t know them.

Listen to more Silver Apples.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 292
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 025

Jeff Beck
Truth

Released 1968/08

I couldn’t have named a single Jeff Beck song before undertaking the listening project that has since become this website—even though I actually had an album of his that I picked up sometime way back in my vinyl days (Beck-Ola, the one with an apple on the cover). Obviously, I didn’t listen to it much.

Yet the opening guitar fanfare of “Beck’s Bolero” must be instantly recognizable to any rock fan, even without knowing who the performers are.  It’s one of the great rock instrumentals of its time, a brilliant exhibition of pure guitar splendor. (One can only wonder why they didn’t choose to open the album with it.)

Beck’s heavy blues guitar on his debut album Truth is great, of course, but perhaps the real treat to be found here is the raspy, belting voice of Rod Stewart.  It’s the perfect complement to the churning blues-rock grind of “Let Me Love You,” and he has no problem keeping up with Beck’s guitar wizardry in their call-and-response rendition of “I Ain’t Superstitious.” I’ve heard several versions of “Morning Dew,” but none seems to me as powerful as this one, largely due to Stewart’s passionate delivery.

Stewart, always regarded as one of the musicians who most profoundly betrayed his enormous talents, had plenty of great moments before he became all sexy, slick, and commercial, and this album, the first to expose him to a wider audience, has plenty of great moments.  The interplay between the pleading and wailing vocals and guitar, backed by the exuberant bass and drums, established a blueprint for hard-rocking bands everywhere.

Listen to more Jeff Beck (coming soon).

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 106
• 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)

Dillard and Clark
The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark

Released 1968/10

As far as I’m concerned, anyone interested in the back-to-basics/roots/country-rock movement of the late ‘60s could do themselves a favor by skipping the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo and instead first searching out the work of Byrds-outcast Gene Clark.  Sweetheart is good, of course, but The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark is better—and more country, to boot.

Clark teamed up with banjo-picker extraordinaire Doug Dillard for an in-the-studio voyage through the halls of Americana, to create one of the great country-rock albums. It’s hard not to fall under the spell of the sneakily catchy melody and guitar interplay of “Train Leaves Here this Morning” or the electric harpsichord lending an ethereal touch to “The Radio Song.” Like many other moments on the album, “With Care from Someone” sounds to me a little like the early Byrds, country style, with finger-picking banjo replacing the acoustic guitar.

Gene Clark is not a name widely known among those who grew up listening to the radio, but he deserves a larger audience.  Clark’s voice seems unassuming at first, but there’s a subtle expressiveness to it that hooks you after repeated listens.

Listen to more Gene Clark (coming soon).

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

The Beau Brummels
Bradley’s Barn

Released 1968/10

The Beau Brummels got their start incorporating the influence of British Invasion beat music into folk. But by the time they hit their peak, on Triangle and Bradley’s Barn, their sound had grown more complex, with lush, psychedelic pop orchestration and country-rock touches.

Brummel lead vocalist Sal Valentino has a rich, expressive voice, punctuated with an occasional affected warble, that I find very compelling. After listening to their work sequentially (in compiling their Artist Spotlight), I’d say Valentino allowed a Southern accent to gradually creep into his singing, and by the time of Bradley’s Barn, it was clearly evident.

And country music was more present here than earlier, as in the guitar lines of “Turn Around” that open the album and the horse-trot rhythm of “Long Walking Down to Misery.” But the lushness of the arrangements launch many of the songs into a glorious, hard-to-classify stratosphere. The propulsive “Love Can Fall a Long Way Down,” for example, pulses with harpsichord-sounding keyboard that submerges the guitar picking beneath it.

The Brummels seem to have undergone a revival in recent years, heralded as forebears to the alt-country movement. Good for them. But when I listen, I’d say their rich, complex arrangements feel just as chamber pop to me as country.

Regardless of genre, Bradley’s Barn is a terrific, unique album. I had originally left it off my Top 200 of the decade (opting to represent the Brummels with only one album, Triangle), but both have risen in my estimation since then, this one in particular. So now I rank it higher than before.

Listen to more Beau Brummels.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music, bubbling under the top 3000 albums of all time

Nico
The Marble Index

Released 1968/11

There’s something about Nico albums that renders them mostly unlistenable if you’re not in the right mood.  Her icy, indifferently atonal delivery and the discordant ambient soundscapes lurking beneath aren’t particularly engaging.  But when you are on her wavelength (and let’s hope for your sake that’s not too often), these songs are intensely gripping.

Who would had thought, after first hearing The Velvet Underground and Nico, that Nico would end up having the most avant-garde career?  For all I know, that could be the Kronos Quartet backing her up.  (It’s not, of course; fellow Velvet John Cale was behind the string arrangements.)

On The Marble Index, her second album, she distances herself radically from the folk pop sound of her debut. Quietly piercing harmonium drones and strings lend the aptly named “Frozen Warnings” a chilly undercurrent. The same instrumentation wavers and flutters enticingly beneath “Julius Caesar (Memento Hodié).” A quartet of violas, sounding to my ears not unlike a Janáček-style accompaniment, enhance “No One Is There.” “Lawns of Dawn” feels a bit like a rock-a-bye nursery rhyme sung over pleasantly meandering atonal chaos. The album culminates with the dancing harpsichord accompaniment of “Evening of Light” that slowly crescendos and darkens until it is overcome by screeching viola and discordant noise.

To put it bluntly, this shit is dark—way dark. It’s also seriously good, if you can stomach it. The Marble Index has been hailed (by rock critics, who may or may not know any better) as one of the major works of contemporary classical music. This and Desertshore are the best albums to check out to get the full eerie ice-queen experience.

Listen to more Nico (coming soon).

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 197
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 014

Here’s the complete 1968: The Year in Review playlist for you—three tracks per album. Enjoy!

More 1968, The Year in Review

More Years in Review of the 1960s…

Cover Art Citations:

• Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24799232
• Gilberto Gil: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29690895
• Caetano Veloso: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23323359
• The United States of America: By Derived from a digital capture of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1599247
• Odessey & Oracle: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2005687
• Silver Apples: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7040124
• Truth: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3289858
• Bradley’s Barn: By The cover art can be obtained from Warner Bros. Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24109414
• The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8008264
• The Marble Index: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51807329