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

Loosen Up Naturally
Artist: The Sons of Champlin
Community Score: 10.00
I Love You
Artist: People
Community Score: 9.50

Their debut album, highlighting their drawn-out cover of "I Love You," presents dated original material in an undistinguised heavy rock vein, with some strained attempts at Zappa-esque weirdness on the closing number, "The Epic." ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read More

The Family That Plays Together - BONUS TRACKS
Artist: Spirit
Community Score: 10.00

On this, the second Spirit album, the group put all of the elements together that made them the legendary (and underrated) band that they were. Jazz, rock & roll, and even classical elements combined to create one of the cleanest, most tasteful syntheses of its day. The group had also improved measurably from their fine debut album, especially... 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

From the Beginning
Artist: The Small Faces
Community Score: 9.25

Another remastering of a classic piece of mid-'60s British rock & soul, and as important and enjoyable a record as, say, the Beatles' Rubber Soul or the Stones' Aftermath, even if the album itself was slapped together by Decca in an effort to undercut the band's first new release for rival Immediate Records in 1967. Steve Marriott's honest,... 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

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 Crazy World of Arthur Brown - TOUCHWOOD
Artist: Arthur Brown
Community Score: 10.00

Though a bit over-the-top, this album was still powerful and surprisingly melodic, and managed to be quite bluesy and soulful even as the band overhauled chestnuts by James Brown and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. "Spontaneous Apple Creation" is a willfully histrionic, atonal song that gives Captain Beefheart a run for his money. Though this one-shot... 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

Clear
Artist: Spirit
Community Score: 10.00

Although this album may not be seen as the definitive Spirit statement, it has several moments of brilliance that prove what a revolutionary band they were. Coming off of the success of The Family That Plays Together and "I Got a Line on You," the group entered the studio with Lou Adler once again in the producer's chair. Unfortunately, the... Read More