OCCASIONALLY, AN album hoves into view that proves capable of defying critical categorisation and setting new standards. Back in 1974, Gene Clark was still remembered as the primary singer-songwriter from the Byrds, and the main composer of the groundbreaking single Eight Miles High which, as early as 1966, had heralded the emergence of psychedelia.
Banished to the cult fringes for the best part of a decade, he was given a new shot at glory by the entrepreneur David Geffen, and he decided to make the album of a lifetime. No Other was a work of pop transcendence — an invigorating cocktail of gospel, choral and country with a dazzling cavalcade of lyrical imagery and an expansive cinematic production by Thomas Jefferson Kaye. It instantly confirmed Clark’s standing as the king of the cosmic cowboys, as well as displaying a degree of ambition previously unseen in the Seventies singer-songwriter genre.
A battalion of LA’s finest session players was recruited for the album, with Kaye attempting to create an epic sound somewhere between Phil Spector and Brian Wilson. The songs ranged widely from the overwhelming Strength of Strings to the dark meditations present on Some Misunderstanding, and the deeply enigmatic From a Silver Phial.
Alas, Clark’s distaste for touring, his self-destructive hedonism and a hopeless lack of media savvy all conspired to consign him to the cult fringes once more. No Other nevertheless became a word of mouth classic and its reputation has grown with each passing decade.
Scandalously unavailable on CD in the US and UK markets until now, it deserves to be rediscovered by a new generation of listeners. The seven bonus tracks are predominantly acoustic demos, and they serve as an indication of quite how orthodox the work might have sounded without the arrangement and production skills of Kaye. He, along with Clark, created a work that should have been compulsory listening for every former Byrd.
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(WSM Records)
(Rating: 5/5)