Best Albums Of The 1960s, Pt. 4

#10
Songs Of Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
1968

Leonard Cohen is the great forgotten lyricist of the 1960s. While everyone gushes over Dylan, Lennon and McCartney, this quiet Canadian deserves far more credit than he receives. With his elegant, elaborate tales of interpersonal relationships, religion and power, his work is more overtly serious and stark than some of his contemporaries. While this may be off-putting to some, Cohen essentially created the template for every tortured rock-poet that followed, from Ian Curtis to Nick Cave. With just an acoustic guitar and Cohen’s baritone voice, Songs Of Leonard Cohen is one of the most haunting and gorgeous albums of its time.

#9
Scott 4
Scott Walker
1969

An alternative title for this album could have been How To Lose A Fanbase In Ten Easy Steps. With his fourth solo album, Scott Walker made it clear that his earlier days as a pretty-boy pop star with the Walker Brothers were long gone. Lush and bordering on operatic at times, Scott 4 was his first album composed entirely of original songs and, to put it simply, his audience couldn’t handle it. Songs about Ingmar Bergman films? Intense, emotional storytelling? Evocative, exotic lyricism? This wasn’t what pop stars were supposed to record. Not unlike Brian Wilson with Pet Sounds, Scott 4 captures an artist pushing pop music to the extremes, seeing how far he can go before he’s the only one interested in his music anymore.

#8
The Gilded Palace Of Sin
The Flying Burrito Brothers
1969

Besides having one of the most badass album titles in history, The Gilded Palace Of Sin is notable for spawning the entire genre that we now know as alt-country. Under the haphazard leadership of the Georgia-born Gram Parsons, the Burrito Brothers created a sound that sat directly in the middle of the divide separating West Coast rock and southern country music. Of course, in the process, they managed to alienate both audiences, but decades down the line, Parsons’ pioneering has blossomed into great bands like Wilco and the Drive-By Truckers. Plus, the two (arguably) best songs on the album, “Hot Burrito #1” and “Hot Burrito #2”, were written so late in the recording session that they didn’t even get real titles. With talent like that, Parsons’ spiraling decline following this album feels all the more tragic.

#7
The Band
The Band
1969

I’ll never understand how Robbie Robertson, a Canadian of Jewish and Native American descent, managed to write almost an entire album of traditional American folk songs. But there they are, in all their glory, whether we’re talking about the pro-Confederacy flag-waving of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” or the spiky union tale of “King Harvest (Has Surely Come)”. The Band’s first album may have been their most surprising work, but their second album is their most definitive statement. Somehow, four Canadians and one redneck drummer from Arkansas created an enduringly American album, drawn from a set of traditions and experiences they could only imagine.

#6
Revolver
The Beatles
1966

While the influence of drugs on Rubber Soul was subtle, the Beatles’ next album was overtly inspired by the mind-expanding substances the Fab Four had recently discovered. Hazy and full of dissonant musical touches (mostly thanks to George Harrison and his sitar), Revolver is also the Beatles' most knowingly artistic work. McCartney even brought strings into the studio for “Eleanor Rigby”, writing the book for string-use in rock songs in the process. But the thing that makes Revolver important is the band’s sudden experimentalist streak, culminating in Lennon’s “Tomorrow Never Knows”, pre-empting most of what the Velvet Underground would perfect a year later. “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream” he urges us. A masterful balance of pop songwriting and high-art experiments, Revolver is as close to a perfect album as the Beatles’ ever got.