This is a record that even those who aren't fans can listen to two or three times in one sitting -- but then, this wasn't much like any other album that the group ever issued. Actually, was highly prized for many years by fans of , and for good reason. The group was going through a transition -- original lead singer and bassist would be voted out of the lineup soon after the album was finished (although they weren't told about it until three months later), organist and guitarist having perceived limitations in their work in terms of where each wanted to take the band. And between 's ever-greater ambitions toward fusing and 's ever-bolder guitar attack, both of which began to coalesce with the session for in early 1969, the group managed to create an LP that combined 's early, raw excitement, intensity, and boldness with 's complexity and intellectual scope, and virtuosity on both levels. On and, especially, they strike a spellbinding balance between all of those elements, and ' work on the latter is one of the landmark vocal performances in . a three-part suite with orchestral accompaniment, is overall a match for such similar efforts by as the and gets extra points for crediting its audience with the patience for a relatively long, moody developmental section and for including a serious orchestral interlude that does more than feature a pretty tune, exploiting the timbre of various instruments as well as the characteristics of the full ensemble. Additionally, the band turns in a very successful stripped-down, version of 's with an organ break that shows 's debt to modern as well as training. In all, amid all of those elements -- the orchestral accompaniment, harpsichord embellishments, and backward organ and drum tracks -- holds together astonishingly well as a great body of music. This is one of the most bracing albums ever, and a successful vision of a musical path that the group might have taken but didn't. Ironically, the group's American label, , which was rapidly approaching bankruptcy, released this album a lot sooner than did in England, but ran into trouble over the use of the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" on the cover; although it has been on display at the Vatican, the work was wrongly perceived as containing profane images and never stocked as widely in stores as it might've been. ~ Bruce Eder