The one hundred sixty-sixth album: #166 The Grateful Dead - Live/Dead
The Grateful Dead's Live/Dead clocks in at a "healthy" 75 minutes, with the first track, Dark Star, clocking in at 23 minutes. It's an extended jam around the original two minute song that has a tendency to fade into the background after a while. Althought this would have been different on vinyl, I didn't spot the change between this and St. Stephen, which also has a longer jam session included in the song. St. Stephen's lyrics, at least, stand out more and make for a more interesting story.
The nature of the jams meansthat the songs continue to blur together - while their core may be more unique, there aren't enough tricks in here to separate one ten minute jam from another fifteen minute jam. Perhaps it doesn't help that this is fairly jazzy rock as well, not the best of genres if you want to make an impression. While the core of each song stands out - Turn On Your Love Light even has some crowd sounds - it just doesn''t work as an album unless you already know you're into it.