141. The Flying Burrito Brothers — The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969)

1. After hearing Gram Parsons take The Byrds in regrettable directions, I was wary of hearing this project of his. I shouldn’t have been — this is simultaneously more Country and more Rock than that Byrds album, with twangy vocals interrupted by rocking guitar solos that remind me of Nils Cline’s more anxious work with Wilco.
2. The album is, on a whole, still a bit too Country for me, a genre I’m continuing to struggle with as we work through this list. At its peak, however, it can be remarkably stunning. “Christine’s Tune,” the album opener, is a knockout, an epic “fuck you” to a devil of a woman. Later, “Hot Burrito #1” is a lovely lament to a lost lover. Throughout, Parsons keeps the emotion at the forefront while the band fills out a full sound that’s been missing from a lot of the country tunes on this list. Parsons was just getting started, and I’m excited to see where he goes from here.

Next up: Johnny Cash heads to a new prison.

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