This album was another one I added to my queue while I was listening to Fields the other night. I hadn’t heard of The Freeborne until I added the album, so a quick google search shows that they were a psychedelic rock band formed in Boston in 1966, and they were associated with the “Bosstown Sound” of psychedelic rock in the area back in their day. They only released one album, which is now regarded as a pretty good album from the “Bosstown Sound”, but the band never really got much notoriety due to three out of the five members being in high school. They did, however, open for The Velvet Underground at one point. The band essentially broke up in 1968, but according to wikipedia, some variations of the band continued to perform into the 1970s. With that, I’m going to jump on into the music.
“Images” has a super flavorful piano intro with some cymbals. Holy smokes, I’m really digging this one already. Knowing that the band was so young when they made this is really impressive. That piano has some super tasty flavors and really jams out and hangs loose and honestly gets super groovy. That bass line is super smooth. Oh wow, they’re going into a bit of a psychedelic little shuffle/waltz with the main focus being a saxophone or clarinet or possibly a brass instrument. Oh wow, the song drops right into the intro riff again. The vocals take unexpected resolutions at times, and the whole thing feels like it gets super far out there without ever really traveling that far from home, musically speaking. Wow, I’m pumped for the rest of the album.
“Land of Diana” starts out with a little bit of organs that are somewhat reminiscent of Ray Manzarek, and then it drops into a little shuffle with the piano having an almost underwater. Wow, those chimes are absolutely piercing, but really lovely. Oh wow, this song is absolutely awesome. I’m going to have to look into buying this one on vinyl. The vocals take on this otherworldly ethereal feel at times. Oh wow, there’s a strange little end to this like we just traveled to a different room, poked our heads in, and heard the inner machinations of this song. It honestly felt somewhat Beatles-esque.
“Visions of My Own” has a super psychedelic folk feel to it with that acoustic guitar and what I think was a flute. Oh wow, that acoustic guitar keeps brushing away with that similar pattern over and over again. The tambourine comes as the song begins to develop some different layers to it, and then it reverts to that normal riff again. I really dig that acoustic guitar; it feels like it’s brushing my mind as I listen. The songwriting in this one, and the album as a whole, is absolutely phenomenal.
Oh wow, “Sadly Acknowledged” is a song with explosions and gunshots, and is what I’m interpreting to be a musical allusion to the war in Vietnam at the time. Wow, this song is quite sullen, and incredibly trippy, and honestly sad, in the greater context of the album. The songwriting and composition is really awesome as a whole.
“Peak Impressions and Thoughts” has a super awesome feel like it’s the ride up the roller coaster’s first hill. The swirling organ is continually lifting up, with the electric guitar sort of keeps things rolling along, and the drums are like the clicking of the track. The bass guitar comes in as the roller coaster starts to near the top to build even greater momentum. Oh wow, things keep building up, with no sign of a resolution – or reaching the top of the hill yet for the ride down – things just keep on going as if the roller coaster doesn’t actually ever come down. Oh wow, the interplay between the keyboard and the delicate picking in the electric guitar is awesome. Oh wow, those wahs are absolutely awesome from the guitar. The cymbals have started crashing, as though the roller coaster has reached a momentary plateau, but it’s still slowly climbing up the hill even higher. Wow, this song is awesome. If you dig psychedelic rock at all, especially that of the 1960s, please check this out. It feels like things are about to start crashing down, but the organ sounds like it’s still lifting up the song/coaster up the track against all odds. Holy smokes, this drum part is absolutely epic, and the electric guitar is super awesome. It feels as though the song is back to where it started, as though the climb was up some sort of Mobius strip that ended us at the beginning.
Oh wow, “Yellow Sky” is so dynamic in sound. Before I can even begin to process what’s going on musically, the song takes off in a completely different yet completely natural musical direction. I really dig the drippy effects on the guitars in this song. That song was so quick, but incredibly enjoyable.
“Hurtin’ Kind of Woman” has almost a bluesy jazz sort of tone from the guitar reminiscent of someone like Grant Green. Wow, this song has a whole lot of mostly blues feel with a tinge of psychedelia with some of the organ and the background vocals. The vocals almost make it seem like some sort of tune that would be played in a jazz club. The drums and the organs really give this one a great little psychedelic shuffle feel, while the guitar and bass keep things super smooth and bluesy. The fact that the band was between the ages of 17 and 19 is nothing short of astounding. The bluesy vocals are absolutely awesome. I am honestly astounded and very disappointed that the band didn’t release any more albums, because this one shows incredible promise. The feel in the playing is so mature in terms of what they’re playing in the blues.
“Inside People” is a super strange psychedelic ethereal bluesy jam tune. The vocals sound like they’re being sung through a vacuum tube or something like that, and the piano, organ, and drums are absolutely grooving out, while the bass softly lifts the tune up to different levels. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that the album is already on the 8th track. Time has absolutely flown by while listening to this one. The piano feels like it’s feeling out new spaces while the drums keep the groove going, and the vocals and organ keep providing the engine that’s driving the song forward with more energy.
“A New Song for Orestes” has a really interesting feel with that harpsichord. It harkens back to somewhat medieval folk, and it even has a bit of a string part in it from a violin or something of the sort. Oh wow, this sounds like a psychedelic medieval folk song, and really reminds me a lot of Caedmon. Those vocals kind of sound like they drone a little bit in accordance with a medieval folk tune, but really change tones and give it a somewhat psychedelic nature. Oh wow, this poetry in the middle of the song really reminds me quite a bit of Jim Morrison, though is a little less dark in approach. I really dig the orchestration to this whole piece.
“But I Must Return to Frenzy” has a super interesting feel to the beginning to the beginning that sounds like a John Lennon line in a Beatles song that I can’t quite remember the title of, but it definitely sounds familiar in the approach. Oh wow, that piano combined with the string part has a really building orchestral feel that the drums keep pulsating forward with the snares. Oh wow, this one breaks through that line that was repeated and provides such an interesting, echoey, psychedelic soundscape for the band to perform on. The only instrument at the moment is a super interesting saxophone or other woodwind/brass instrument, and now it’s taking turns playing with the guitar. I really dig the very simple approach with only one instrument at a time playing a really intricate little psychedelic solo. Everything sort of fades for a moment, and the guitar and sax (?) come squeaking back in and taking turns once again. Oh wow, that piano comes in and resolves everything that was being played – while playing the same patterns that the sax and guitar were playing, except shifted down about a step and a half to the point where it’s super melodic and resolves a lot of tension the other instruments built up. That said, the piano is definitely building up some tension, and now the piano and sax are taking turns with little single notes, gradually increasing complexity as the melody is felt out. I think the saxophone I’ve mentioned a few times is actually a trumpet, but regardless, what it’s playing is really lovely. The piano and trumpet have built up a little tension, and holy smokes, the vocals and drums come back on and the song falls back into the main riff from the beginning. It sounds a whole lot like a rework of a Beatles song to some extent, but is incredibly impressive in its own right. That marching drum to end things off that gradually slows down as if they simply slowed the playback down so that it’s a lot lower in pitch too is super sweet. Wow, what a sweet song to end on.
Wow, I’m incredibly stoked to have listened to this album tonight. There was an incredible amount of awesome songwriting and performance, regardless of genre, in this album. The fact that the band played the blues-tinged psychedelic rock at times with such maturity at such young ages is really incredible to me, and only makes me want to practice my own playing even more. If you’re a fan of psychedelic rock and/or 60s rock, please check this out. Personally, I don’t know a whole lot about “Bosstown Sound”, and the only other artist I can think of related to that is Ultimate Spinach, so I’m going to do some more investigating into that area soon. If you do decide to give this one a listen, I sincerely hope you enjoy it at least as much as I did.
-A