Harmonizing Dylan songs with a Rickenbacker and a backbeat was a coup. So it is that, as the Byrds went hippie then country, they were good at blending trends, not chasing them.

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.

At war with each other and their own idealism, the Byrds were space cowboys. Tension was a record of the times. After this album the band fizzled out.

2009-06-25 - Joe Cormack

track list Artificial Energy Goin' Back Natural Harmony Draft Morning Wasn't Born To Follow Get To You Change Is Now Old John Robertson Tribal Gathering Dolphin's Smile Space Odyssey Moog Raga Bound To Fall Triad Goin' Back Draft Morning Universal Mind Decoder