★★★★★
Context is a wonderful thing. Sometimes we need it to understand something, other times our understanding is limited because of it. The second proposition comes to mind while playing this 20-track compilation: "Why have I never heard this great version before?... Oh, I have, but it was on LP x, surrounded by numbers w and y." Listening to many of these tracks out of their original context, juxtaposed in an unusual order, made a surprisingly big difference...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Live From Mars is an underwhelming returnby former Byrds leader Roger McGunn, who shares favorite tunes andautobiographical anecdotes plus a pair of forgettable new studiotracks recorded with members of the Jayhawks. While Live From Mars offers an enjoyable if not particularly revelatory strolldown memory lane, the recent series of Sony Legacy Byrdsre-issues makes a far stronger case for McGuinn as one of '60srock's most adventurous innovators and distinctive stylists. B
- ew.com
2011-03-03
★★★★★
When the Byrds were finally laid to rest by Roger McGuinn, the obvious next step was a solo career for the man whose gravelly voice, 12-string guitar leads and unerring sense of musical taste had been synonymous with the band he'd founded almost a decade earlier. McGuinn's self-titled 1973 solo debut -- with stirring guest appearances from Bob Dylan and Charles Lloyd -- was a relentlessly eclectic joy from top to bottom, drawing stirring inspiration from all eras of the Byrds' storied career.
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Fresh off Dylan's rowdy Rolling Thunder tour, McGuinn uncorked his liveliest solo work in 1976. Produced by Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson, the Byrds icon gets punky on "Rock and Roll Time" and tackles Bowie's glam classic "Soul Love," though the Dylan obscurity "Up to Me" returns him to familiar folk-rock turf.
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
The only constant fixture in the Byrds' line-up, McGuinn was thus able to satisfy a myriad of musical cravings, which is perhaps why his solo career never produced the kind of intensely personal masterpiece that his ex-bandmates Gene Clark and David Crosby did with No Other and If I Could Only Remember My Name respectively...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2010-06-19
★★★★★
McGuinn seems to have done a whole album about breaking up with his wife or somebody. Which is fine, no law against it. But real country singers have more of a knack for such things. When Charlie Rich sings "God ain't gonna love you" (in the title tune, which Rich wrote), the blasphemy comes as a shock. McGuinn just sounds churlish.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
I hate the name-dropping title, but this is McGuinn's best since his solo debut, including a tongue-in-cheek version of Dylan's mystical-romantic "Golden Loom," a psychedelic reminiscence, and good-to-great covers from George Jones, Tom Petty, and--the conceptual triumph--Peter Frampton.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
I'd written him off before Rolling Thunder, too, but this record, produced by fellow Roller Ronson and featuring various tour buddies, rocks wilder than anything he ever did with the Byrds. Unfortunately, it's more confusing than astonishing. The factitious folk songs about piracy and the Holy Grail make fewer contemporary connections than the real folk song "Pretty Polly." Ditto the previously unrecorded donations from fellow Rollers Mitchell and Dylan...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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