Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Artist: The Beatles
Community Score: 8.40

With Revolver, the Beatles made the Great Leap Forward, reaching a previously unheard-of level of sophistication and fearless experimentation. Sgt. Pepper, in many ways, refines that breakthrough, as the Beatles consciously synthesized such disparate influences as psychedelia, art-song, classical music, rock & roll, and music hall, often in the... Read More

One Nation Underground
Artist: Pearls Before Swine
Community Score: 8.00

Psychedelic-folk debut from one of the most erudite, literate minds in rock, Thomas D. Rapp (and the first of his ever-changing Swine). Although the songs here lack some cohesion, this is still a stunning piece of work, from the nightmarish sleeve art -- the "Hell Panel" from Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century painting "Garden of Delights" -- to... Read More

Odessey and Oracle
Artist: The Zombies
Community Score: 6.91

Odessey and Oracle was one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring long-players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom, mixing trippy melodies, ornate choruses, and lush Mellotron sounds with a solid hard rock base. But it was overlooked completely in England and barely got out in America (with a... Read More

Spirit - EPIC
Artist: Spirit
Community Score: 10.00

Spirit's debut unveiled a band that seemed determine to out-eclecticize everybody else on the California psychedelic scene, with its melange of rock, jazz, blues, folk-rock, and even a bit of classical and Indian music. Teenaged Randy California immediately established a signature sound with his humming, sustain-heavy tone; middle-aged drummer... Read More

Brave New World
Artist: Steve Miller Band

Blasting out of stereo speakers in the summer of 1969, Brave New World was more fully realized, and rocked harder, than the Steve Miller Band's first two albums. From the opening storm of the uplifting title track to the final scorcher, "My Dark Hour," featuring Paul McCartney (credited as "Paul Ramon"), this recording was the strongest project... Read More

Sailor
Artist: Steve Miller Band

Most definitely a part of the late-'60s West Coast psychedelic blues revolution that was becoming hipper than hip, Steve Miller was also always acutely aware of both the British psychedelic movement that was swirling in tandem and of where the future lay, and how that would evolve into something even more remarkable. The result of all those... Read More

Children of the Future
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Community Score: 5.00

A psychedelic blues rock-out, 1968's Children of the Future marked Steve Miller's earliest attempt at the ascent that brought him supersonic superstardom. Recorded at Olympic Studios in London with storied producer Glyn Johns at the helm, the set played out as pure West Coast rock inflected with decade-of-love psychedelia but intriguingly... Read More

Permanent Damage
Artist: The G.T.O.'s

This 17-track aural document is arguably more sociological than musical in nature. Frank Zappa's insatiable curiosity into human behavior -- especially with regard to all manner of sexual deviance and the so-called "lunatic fringe" -- became the subject of several releases on his ironically titled Straight Records vanity label. However,... Read More

Electric Music for the Mind and Body
Artist: Country Joe & the Fish
Community Score: 10.00

Their full-length debut is their most joyous and cohesive statement and one of the most important and enduring documents of the psychedelic era, the band's swirl of distorted guitar and organ at its most inventive. In contrast to Jefferson Airplane, who were at their best working within conventional song structures, and the Grateful Dead, who... Read More

The Beatles - WHITE ALBUM
Artist: The Beatles
Community Score: 7.95

Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything it can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the so-called White Album interesting is its mess. Never before had a rock record... Read More

Magical Mystery Tour
Artist: The Beatles
Community Score: 7.75

The U.S. version of the soundtrack for the Beatles' ill-fated British television special embellished the six songs that were found on the British Magical Mystery Tour double EP with five other cuts from their 1967 singles. (The CD version of the record has now been standardized worldwide as the 11 tracks found on the American version.) The... Read More

Mr. Fantasy - 5 BONUS TRACKS
Artist: Traffic
Community Score: 9.00

Since Traffic's debut album Mr. Fantasy has been issued in different configurations over the years, a history of those differences is in order. In 1967, the British record industry considered albums and singles separate entities; thus, Mr. Fantasy did not contain the group's three previous Top Ten U.K. hits. Just as the album was being released... Read More