The Notorious Byrd Brothers
| The Byrds
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band the Byrds, and was released in January 1968, on Columbia Records. The album represents the pinnacle of the Byrds' late-60's musical experimentation, with the band blending together elements of psychedelia, folk rock, country, electronic music, baroque pop, and jazz. With producer Gary Usher, they made extensive use of a number of studio effects and production techniques, including phasing, flanging, and spatial panning. The Byrds also introduced the sound of the pedal steel guitar and the Moog modular synthesizer into their music, making it one of the first LP releases on which the Moog appears.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
1999- The best word to summarize The Notorious Byrd Brothers is transitional. It was also their first record to exhibit overt country leanings – by the Sixties’ end, everybody was getting back to the country, but the Byrds were there first, and on Notorious Byrd Brothers you can hear them saddling up the horses.
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All Music
The recording sessions for the Byrds' fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, were conducted in the midst of internal turmoil that found them reduced to a duo by the time the record was completed. That wasn't evident from listening to the results, which showed the group continuing to expand the parameters of their eclecticism while retaining their hallmark guitar jangle and harmonies.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
2015- Released on Jan. 15, 1968, The Notorious Byrd Brothers marks the end of another chapter for one of America's finest rock 'n' roll bands. . . . The Notorious Byrd Brothers rings out like a glorious chiming bell and remains one of the band's most loved albums. Its consistency is amazing, with one song after another bending one's mind and inducing a smile.
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Spectrum Culture
2017- The Notorious Byrd Brothers was a departure for the band, even more so than the explosively experimental “Eight Miles High.” Notorious endures as a sonic testimony to the tumultuous conditions of its making in and out of the studio.
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Blog Critics
2009- The Notorious Byrd Brothers has a timeless quality about it and is one of the better, if not the best release, in their outstanding catalogue of work. It is a stunning album that was meant to be listened too with head phones firmly in place.
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Rising Storm
2007- On Notorious Byrd Brothers, they hit their pyschedelic apex, enlisted the Moog synthesizer, fell apart, and created a masterpiece.
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Sundazed
The Byrds pull no punches kicking off their fifth album, 1968's The Notorious Byrd Brothers, with "Artificial Energy," a devastating haymaker aimed at the go-fast generation. In the blink of an eye, they're into the most beautiful baroque folk-rock ever created, the Carole King/Gerry Goffin-penned "Goin' Back."
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Classsic Rock Review
2018- The Notorious Byrd Brothers was recorded in the Autumn of 1967 and it musically reaches the apex of the Byrds’ psychedelic endeavors. With a core folk rock skeleton, the succinct tracks on this album added subtle elements of baroque, jazz, country and the earliest elements of electronic music.
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Music On Vinyl
The album was a labour of love, though; it's more experimental and progressive than their previous works and is considered one of the best albums they made.
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Adrian's Album Reviews
2015- A true masterpiece this time round.
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Excatholic4Christ
2018- Despite the acrimonious recording sessions, “The Notorious Byrd Brothers” is widely acknowledged as the band’s finest album.
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AlohaCriticon
The result is excellent with its excellent combination of voices and masterful compositions full of baroque with sections of wind, arrangements of violins, sidereal keyboards, guitars that amalgamate pop, country, rock, folk and psychedelia ...
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Aphoristic Album Reviews
The Notorious Byrd Brothers relies on its wonderful production and inventive arrangements, but it rates as The Byrds’ best album for me.
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Analog Planet
2006- Of all the recent Sundazed Byrds mono reissues, this is by far, the most essential, and the one to start with.
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Alan's Album Archives
2008- Notorious, is one of the greatest albums ever made, not least because it's one of the most beautiful albums ever made. How on earth did a band who could barely stay in the same room as one another and all felt as if their futures were uncertain and hopeless find it in themselves to create such powerful, restive songs is beyond me - but they found the knack of turning all that tension into gold just in time.
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We Are Cult
2018- The Notorious Byrd Brothers was released on January 3rd 1968. It remains perhaps the Byrds’ crowning achievement, a remarkably cohesive, sonically stunning album conceived and recorded in an atmosphere of chaos and acrimony, with a revolving door line-up of current and ex-Byrds and session musicians.
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Mark's Record Reviews
If you love the first four, you're gonna want this one too because it's still full of lovely McGuinntones designed to make you smile and meditate. That's actually the overriding mood here - one of peace, calm and meditation.
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What Glen Thinks
2011- In some ways, this album was the culmination of the experimentation which characterised the Byrds' recordings since 1966, containing as it did traces of folk rock, country, psychedelia and pure pop. . . . . It is probably the most enduring and accomplished work of the Byrds' career.
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George Starostin's Reviews
Notorious Byrd Brothers is still a classic McGuinn/Hillman/Crosby collaboration, and the last 'true' Byrds album in any particular sense.
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Progrography
2018- While I don’t believe in a “best” Byrds album (they’re all different, they’re all good), The Notorious Byrd Brothers is an amazing last ride into the technicolor sunset.
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Don Ignacio's Music Reviews
All in all, this is another highly recommended Byrds album... Don't overlook this thingy. It's the last album they would do before that boring country-rock thing they would do the following year.
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The Moon Under Water
2017- Though as acrimonious as relationships were, The Notorious Byrd Brothers is now, as it was then, regarded as their most visionary work, encompassing folk-rock, country-rock, psychedelic pop, and even jazz. There’s some Moog in there as well, so overall a pretty eclectic, experimental affair, at least by 1967 standards.
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HiFi and Music Source
2017- The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the rangy, staccato, fifth album from the Byrds, reflecting their disintegration and various fallings out. The lack of ‘albumness’ or continuity is evident in the range of styles that includes Country and Western, Psychedelic Rock, Synthesizer riffs, guns, bullets and dolphin noises. . . . this album represents The Byrds’ high point, according to All Music and Rolling Stone. I agree.
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Exploded Goat
2009- Notorious is a fine hybrid. Beautiful and stoned, it’s 1968, Laurel Canyon, and the light and shade that den conveys. Countermelodies add pathos to an open regard for a world in flux.
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David Vrieze Daniels 1001 Albums You Must Hear
The album really has two types of songs on it, on one side you have really experimental, psychedelic, electronic songs . . . . On the other side you have the folksy and country style Byrds . . . . Personally, this is my least favorite Byrds album and I would exclude it.
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