Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A call to arms., 13 May 2004
I'm going to start with a confession. My knowledge of the incredible string band is rather limited so you'll excuse me if I can't demonstrate the type of extensive background knowledge of the band displayed by other reviewers of this album. As a daughter of an original sixties child I have been influenced enormously by my father to whom my music taste is entirely indebted. Perhaps for this reason I feel completely let down by the majority of modern music and tend to raid my father's collection for stimulation. The wonderful man made a little compilation C.D. for his pretentious teenaged daughter and this is where I first encountered The Incredible String Band. Painting Box completely overwhelmed me with that complex confusion of vocals and strings vying for attention. So beautiful and natural...how could I not seek out the source of such a masterpiece?And so I find myself surrounded by these incredible psychedelic string sounds even as I write this crit.. I challenge anyone to listen to the 5000 Spirits and not feel as I do; we, the youth of the nineties/noughties, are a musically deprived generation. Let us hope modern musicians seek inspiration in truly musical albums like this and perhaps the future of music will be a little brighter :-)
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a stone groove, baby!, 15 Aug 2001
An absolute classic of late 60s high psychedelia. The Incredible String Band's second album, released in 1967 (the year I was born!), more or less defines hippyness (at least from the British perspective), with the cosmic symbolism of its cover art, and the eclectic blend of musical influences it displays - whilst the sound is rooted in a Celtic folk tradition, it incorporates Indian and straightforward rock sounds, and the influence of Bob Dylan is felt everywhere. My favourite tracks are the bittersweet First Girl I Loved, Painting Box and Gently Tender. The charming whimsy of Little Cloud and The Hedgehog's Song is quite appealing, though beware - if singing hedgehogs and lovelorn clouds sound stupid to you, you won't dig this album at all, man!
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My All-Time Favourite Album..., 1 Aug 2003
..so don't expect any cool objective criticism - this was the first album I ever loved, it was my introduction to the wildly whimsical world of the Incredible String Band and it remains precious to me over 35 years on. My first hearing was as a grubby-kneed schoolboy bunking off from a cross-country run. A friend who had left school to become a fully-fledged hippy (long hair, tie-dyes, strange cigarettes - the works!) played the album and it was like a whole new and wonderful world opening up for me. The cover art was a trip in itself but the music was like nothing I'd ever heard before. No point trying to classify it, it was weird, strange, disturbing, exhilarating, funny, sexy and downright fascinating, and I was (still am) hooked. Robin Williamson and Mike Heron were on a creative high which sustained them through this and the equally impressive "Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" and "Wee Tam & the Big Huge" albums (all works of genius) and which appeared in varying degrees in subsequent albums. But "5,000 Spirits" is the one which took the Incredibles out of the Scottish folk club scene (they had made an earlier, perfectly respectable album with Clive Palmer which has some great songs but which only hinted at the glories to come), and introduced their music and vision to a rather startled world. Sell-out concerts, star endorsements from Judy Collins, Paul Mcartney, the Stones, Dylan (and Julie Felix) followed. As for me, I fell in love with Hedgehog's Song, Painting Box, Eyes of Fate, First Girl I Loved...when I eventually saved enough pocket money to buy the album I carried it around with me everywhere. I still have my slightly battered original copy but it is nice to be able to play the CD these days. So, this is the one for me, and I heartily recommend that you buy it!
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