Page "Farther Along (The Byrds album)" Paragraph 10

Reaction to the album in the U. S. was more enthusiastic than it had been for Byrdmaniax but still wasn't wholly positive.

Andy Mellen, reviewing the album in the Winnipeg Free Press in February 1972, noted " not being anywhere the equal of Younger Than Yesterday or even Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, it is an encouraging LP, offering some assurance that Roger McGuinn and friends still have their fingers on the pulse of what's happening musically in 1972.

" Ben Gerson commented on both the band and the album in the March 1972 issue of Rolling Stone magazine: " There is a programmatic certainty to their music at this point which at first glance happily signifies that a first-generation band has successfully remade itself, but, after repeated exposure disappoints one with its inflexibility.

" Gerson concluded his review of Farther Along by commenting " This is not an outstanding album, either by Byrds or contemporary standards, though, for at least a Byrds fan, it contains several seductive tunes and some exemplary musicianship.

But beneath the old Byrds sound, and this new, quartered approach, there is a more fundamental commitment, and that is to survival.

" The question of The Byrds ' continued existence was also echoed in a contemporary review by Bud Scoppa in the March 1972 edition of Rock magazine, in which he opined " The Byrds recognized their failure on Byrdmaniax, but placed the blame on the lavish production job rather than their own disunity.

So what we have with Farther Along, evidently rushed out to rectify the problems caused by the last LP, is more disunity, but this time in a basic unadorned state.