#409 Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

I've been going through my mp3s on random at work lately, and keep coming across albums that I've had and never actually gotten around to listening to. Take this one, an album whose title track more or less completely overshadows it (and in fact, the band itself).

Because of that title track I had expected something heavier, but what you have here is sleepy, pretty, organ-laden psychadelia, landing somewhere between The Doors and Odyssey and Oracle, with some hints of the kind of heavy, progginess that Jethro Tull and Genesis would be getting into in a few years. In fact early Genesis highlight The Knife seems directly inspired by Are You Happy. The crunchy guitars and brisk drums on Termination are a fun highlight too.

And then there's the title track, running nearly as long as the rest of the album combined, about which there isn't a lot left to be said. You'd certainly recognize the riff, but if you haven't bothered, you really ought to just give the damn thing its full 17 minute playthrough. It's actually pretty good, being desert-road endless, but providing some compelling shifts and evolutions. Its nearly ambient for (very) long stretches, and therefore better used as accompaniment to doing something else, but its certainly no more difficult a listen than Green Typewriters 8, Shut Down, Revolution #9 or most Krautrock epics (do a shot).

In a weird mirroring to the Germs album, the contrast ends up creating an album that's more than the sum or its parts - some tight sections offset by a grand gesture. I can't say I'll listen to it often, but its a good one to have in my clip 4/5

You might like this if: You like good, trippy, organ-heavy psychadelia. You want to kind of space out, and little more, for 17 minutes.