American Beauty

Review

American Beauty

(Warner Bros.)
Release Date: 01/01/1970 12:00

The Dead have always been considered jammers more than songwriters. But the second great country-rock album the Dead recorded in 1970 is a stone masterpiece of cosmic American songwriting, mostly acoustic arrangements and some of the sweetest harmonies this side of vocal coaches Crosby, Stills & Nash. Lyricist Robert Hunter, though, is the MVP on an elegant album lacking a single Garcia solo but brimming with Zen-like aphorisms and lilting fatalism.

STANDOUT TRACKS:”Box of Rain,” “Ripple,” “Attics of My Life”

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