The Use of Ashes by Pearls Before Swine (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

Album name: The Use of Ashes

Group name: Pearls Before Swine

Year: 1970

Number of discs: one

Label: Reprise Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Buy it on Amazon: $22.98

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I know that there are a bunch of Pearls Before Swine records in my father’s collection, but I’ve never listened to any of them before and don’t remember him listening to them when I was young.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

This was definitely more psychedelic than folky, but still folky – kind of a psychedelic folk.

I liked it a lot! The first side seemed far stronger to me than the second side. Tell Me Why was a little too self consciously weird for my taste, but I enjoyed The Jeweler.

Also it may be worth noting that the back of the album looks like it was thrown together by Tom Rapp, who was apparently the only real/consistent member of the group, on his typewriter, and that it contains the following:

this album is dedicated to the netherlands where most of the songs were written

And:

elisabeth helped

Grade

4/5: would listen again