The Youngbloods Elephant Mountain 180g LP

This item not eligible for any further discount offers!

Hot off of the success of their multi-platinum self-titled debut, The Youngbloods shuffled their lineup (with the departure of co-founder Jerry Corbitt) and used their heightened caché to go big on their follow up, the Charlie Daniels-produced Elephant Mountain. Over multi-layered acoustic-folk and electric-rock instruments, Jesse Colin Young, Banana Levinger, and Joe Bauer create a free-feeling set of tunes that playfully careen between front-porch folk and stadium rock (best exemplified in the classic single "Darkness, Darkness"). That this diverse set of musical influences remained cohesive and artistically daring makes it an underground classic whose admiration continues to grow today. Impex is proud to bring it to you in pristine all-analog glory!

The sound quality of this new LP release is beyond superb. RTI's 180 gram LP was perfectly flat and centered, had beautifully glossy surfaces, and no noise of any kind was evident during playback. For a rock recording dating back to 1969, there's only a negligible level of hiss on the masters—that's surprising, considering the 1:1 master tape transfer prior to the record's remastering. Listening to this reissue was an absolute joy. Impex's LP has warmth and dynamics in spades, and Jesse Colin Young's expressive voice has the kind of clarity audiophiles die for.

So gratifying to see an unsung excellent late '60s album finally get a place in the reissue sun. While Elephant Mountain isn't a groundbreaking or epic late '60s record, its superb musicianship and musical integrity hold up well all these years later and more importantly many, many plays later. Highly recommended!

This masterpiece has — at last! — been reissued with the presentation it deserves.