Moby Grape

Crappy marketing is generally blamed for Moby Grape's commercial failure in 1967. But in reality the world was unprepared for the band's aesthetic. Although its debut exuded the San Francisco sound, the quintet rocked with all the frenzied angst of punk. And dig those arrangements: they're tight, intricate, and overblown in ways that wouldn't be reclaimed by pop until the glam rock of Queen and Sweet blew up in the '70s. Plain and simple: Moby Grape is one of rock's most visionary albums.

They had the looks, the songs, the guitars (three of 'em) and the singing(five drop-dead,
blues-angel voices) -- everything they needed to be America'sBeatles and Rolling Stones
combined. Everything except the luck. Six monthsafter releasing their first LP, Moby Grape,
in June 1967, bassist BobMosley, drummer Don Stevenson, and guitarists Jerry Miller, Peter
Lewis andSkip Spence were a mess and a half, struggling to make music amid leg... More >

The country-rock harbingers, especially on side two, are depressing at first, but you realize soon enough that this stands as a classic pop rock and roll record, recalling a time when "pop" was a concept conducive to the kind of raving intensity three guitars and five voices tuned all the way up are (or were) good for. (Grade: A-)