Wake of the Flood
| Grateful Dead
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Wake of the Flood
Wake of the Flood is the sixth studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead. Released October 15, 1973, it was the first album on the band's own Grateful Dead Records label. Their first studio album in nearly three years, it was also the first without founding member Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who had recently died. His absence and keyboardist Keith Godchaux's penchants for bebop and modal jazz (rather than McKernan's tendencies toward the blues and soul music) contributed to the band's musical evolution. Godchaux's wife, backing vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux, also joined the group and appears on the album.[The release fared better on the pop charts than their previous studio album (1970's American Beauty), reaching No. 18. An expanded version was released in 2004.-"Wikipedia"
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
The lyrics on much of Flood plumb new depths of dull-witted, inbred, blissed-out hippy-dippyness. Those who admire the Dead already will surely find this new album eminently admirable, also. In many ways, it’s one of their most finely-wrought efforts. Thus, Flood will hardly subtract from the Dead’s hard-won popularity, let alone their chartered countercultural niche. Besides, in this dark age of rampant waste, who can knock modest, wholesome craft?
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Sputnik Music
Wake of the Flood is with out a doubt a Grateful Dead gem. The compositions within the album, are greater than any other. The album is filled with emotion, and influence. Some newfound influence in fact.
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All Music
while Wake of the Flood was certainly as good -- if not arguably better than -- most of their previous non-live efforts, it falls far short of the incendiary performances the band was giving during this era. There are a few tracks that do tap into some of the Dead's jazzier and exceedingly improvisational nature.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
Unfortunately, Wake of the Flood falls somewhat flat because so many of the songs had been shaped and defined through appearances in the group's legendary live sets.
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Progrography
The band expands their musical palette with exciting results on their first studio album since American Beauty. it’s a case of the band doing what they do best while refusing to do what you expect them to do, which in its own confusing way sort of sums up the appeal of the Dead .
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The Music Box
Not surprisingly, the ensemble had grown considerably in the intervening years, and just as its psychedelic blues had been transformed into earthy folk music, its Americana-colored foundation had begun to mutate into a more jazz-oriented framework.
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