The Byrds themselves were thoroughly embarrassed by their previous album, Byrdmaniax, which had been coated in a thick, messy paint of horn and choir overdubs - think Let It Be, but... y'know... bad. Now obviously, the production doesn't fully ruin Byrdmaniax - it's a lot like Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, where removing him wouldn't automatically make the movie good, ya dig? Point is, The Byrds were not happy with the result, so they cranked out Farther Along after just two months worth of sessions, and the album was out barely five months after Byrdmaniax. With that being said, does it succeed in essentially undoing the damage that Byrdmaniax did? Well, if you can believe it... not really. Farther Along suffers from very similar problems, mainly the fact that these songs still sound pretty unrealized and bland. It doesn't help that the lyrical contents is, at points, laughable. Still better than Byrdmaniax, though, so The Eagl-I mean The Byrds can give themselves a deserved(?) pat on the back.
Now, to this album's credit, unlike Byrdmaniax, there's stuff on this album that I'd want to hear again. Opening track "Tiffany Queen" is a Dylanesque McGuinn composition, and a soaring rocker at that. Definitely one of the more realized moments on the album, and frankly a great way to begin. Of course, it's all a trick to make you think that the album is better than it really is! I also liked penultimate track "Lazy Waters," mainly because it's a soft and mellow way to conclude - really, you could consider it the real closer, because it's followed by the instrumental "Bristol Steam Convention Blues." Why would they end on an instrumental of all things? Beats me, but if you ask me it just sounds like they forgot to write lyrics for the thing. Outside of the opener, though, Roger has no writing contributions on this album, which is a damn shame because it sounds like he could've handled himself just fine - when you have Skip Batten churning out shit like "America's Great National Pastime," the bar is not overly high, though.
Predictably, the same issue of most of these songs sounding half-baked gets genetically passed on to Farther Along, as if the album is some bastard offspring of Byrdmaniax. As bad as I thought that album was, at least I can kinda remember how bad it was - I remember "I Wanna Grow Up to Be a Politician," and I don't even like that song! On the other hand, Farther Along offers nothing of value that hasn't already been done on any of their previous records. You want country rock? Sweetheart of the Rodeo or Easy Rider. Want some folk rock? Mr. Tambourine Man or Younger than Yesterday. You want bad music? Byrdmaniax has it in spades. I sincerely do not think that there is really a reason to listen to Farther Along over literally any of their other albums, and it doesn't help that the worst moments on this album are just as ridiculous - not just "Great National Pastime," but "B.B. Class Road" is a miserable dirge of a number. I'd be offended as a roadie if I heard this shit!
The Byrds wanted to make an album that they felt was better than Byrdmaniax. Did they? Well, I'm not so sure. Farther Along doesn't fail spectacularly in the way that Byrdmaniax does, but by that metric there's less to even stick around for - at least that album went out with a bang. Farther Along goes out with a whimper; a slouched, burnt out image of a band that had just a few years ago been at the top of their game. The question of "what happened?" is really all that's left on my mind, because Farther Along sure as hell has left my train of thought.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Farther Along.
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