Gene Clark - No Other
Deluxe Newspaper is proud to present a very special appraisal of an iconic album and a thrilling reissue.
Our 2019 reissue of the year is the long overdue appraisal of Gene Clark’s 1974 masterpiece No Other. Released on the eve of what would have been American singer- songwriter and Byrds founding member Gene Clark’s 75th birthday, this version has been remastered from the original tapes, and the results are spectacular. Originally released on Asylum Records - a year after the Byrds’ short-lived reunion - Clark put his everything into actualising the grandeur he could hear, an album of psychedelic rock, folk, country and soul.
It famously cost a small fortune to make and although warmly received by critics, it flopped and was soon deleted, a failure that Clark never came to terms with. He rightly considered it his masterwork, a seamless blend of American music with the richest tapestry of timbres and, most importantly, a brilliant set of songs. The guitars jangle and strut, the rhythm section are as adept with pastoral country as they are funk and soul, the backing singers swell and oat around Clark - who sounds vocally effervescent - and track for track, it has the sort of indescribable vibe that makes a classic album glow. A damn shame that it took 45 years for everyone to come around, but the good ones always remain the good ones, and revisiting this one reaffirms Clark’s belief. A beautiful edition full of notes, photographs and musical addendums that highlight just what an incredible record it is, certainly one that should never have been forgotten for so long.
As part of Sea Change Goes Online, we were so honoured to broadcast a special cut of Jack and Paul Kendall’s ‘The Byrd Who Flew Alone: The Making of No Other’. An amazing documentary with previously unseen interview footage.
“The Byrds frontman’s deliriously opulent solo work was misunderstood upon release, but this lavish repackaging restores a spiritual singer-songwriter classic.”
Photo: John Dietrich
Stream ‘No Other’
