Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah (1975)

 

3/10 ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Blues for Allah is the 8th studio album from the Dead and was recorded at Bob Weir's home during a 4-month touring hiatus. The name of the record is an indicator of the Middle Eastern influence on the tracks including scales and time signatures not commonly used in Western music. While I commend the band for stepping so far out of the norm and taking influence from other countries I felt like this album left me with one striking question: What the hell was that? This is definitely a jam record, and if jamming is your jam, you may love this. However, it's not quite my jam when it's every track, the jamming made the record feel very boring to me, and coming in at a 44-minute album with only 7 songs, it was... 

Highlight: Franklin's Tower - At 4 min 34 sec this is the shortest song on the record. The guitar jamming is done right here, this is a downright groovy tune with a chorus that will stick with you for the rest of the day. It comes as no shock that this was one of two singles from the album.