Farther Along (The Byrds Album) - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

Farther Along was released on November 17, 1971 in the United States (catalogue item KC 30150) and January 21, 1972 in the United Kingdom (catalogue item S 64676), less than five months after Byrdmaniax. Although the album was issued in stereo commercially, there is some evidence to suggest that mono copies of the album (possibly radio station promos) were distributed in the UK. The album peaked at #152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, during a chart stay of seven weeks, but failed to break into the UK Albums Chart. In the U.S., the album was almost the lowest charting of The Byrds' career, being beaten only by Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, which had charted at #153 during 1969. A single taken from the album, "America's Great National Pastime" b/w "Farther Along", was released on November 29, 1971 but failed to chart in the United States or in the United Kingdom. The single's failure in the UK was due to its being withdrawn by CBS Records shortly after its release in January 1972.

Reaction to the album in the U.S. was more enthusiastic than it had been for Byrdmaniax but still wasn't wholly positive. Andy Mellen, reviewing the album in the Winnipeg Free Press in February 1972, noted " not being anywhere the equal of Younger Than Yesterday or even Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, it is an encouraging LP, offering some assurance that Roger McGuinn and friends still have their fingers on the pulse of what's happening musically in 1972." Ben Gerson commented on both the band and the album in the March 1972 issue of Rolling Stone magazine: "There is a programmatic certainty to their music at this point which at first glance happily signifies that a first-generation band has successfully remade itself, but, after repeated exposure disappoints one with its inflexibility." Gerson concluded his review of Farther Along by commenting "This is not an outstanding album, either by Byrds or contemporary standards, though, for at least a Byrds fan, it contains several seductive tunes and some exemplary musicianship. But beneath the old Byrds sound, and this new, quartered approach, there is a more fundamental commitment, and that is to survival." The question of The Byrds' continued existence was also echoed in a contemporary review by Bud Scoppa in the March 1972 edition of Rock magazine, in which he opined "The Byrds recognized their failure on Byrdmaniax, but placed the blame on the lavish production job rather than their own disunity. So what we have with Farther Along, evidently rushed out to rectify the problems caused by the last LP, is more disunity, but this time in a basic unadorned state."

In the UK, Farther Along received reasonable reviews in the music press, with many commentators expressing pleasure that the band had reverted to a more simplistic style of production. The January 29, 1972 edition of Melody Maker commented that it was "Good to hear The Byrds stretching their wings again" before concluding that "Byrdmaniax was the bad news - now for the good news." Caroline Boucher, writing in Disc magazine, awarded the album three stars out of four, while Lon Goddard's review in Record Mirror noted that the album showed The Byrds "slowly drifting away from the more apparent country influences that came to the fore with Sweetheart of the Rodeo and combining into a hybrid that features more of the approach utilised on their earlier albums."

In more recent years, Mark Deming of the Allmusic website has described the album's contents as a "well-crafted set" and compared it to Byrdmaniax by stating "It's certainly a significant improvement, but something short of a triumphant return; the band sounds a bit tired in spots, as if they were starting to run out of gas." In his 2000 review for The Austin Chronicle, Raoul Hernandez gave the album a rating of three and a half stars out of five, commenting "its authentic Dylan and the Band feel solidifies its status as further blueprint of today's roots-rock revival." Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke described the album favorably in 2000 as "a warm, fine record: a rustic, intimate surprise still rarely appreciated for its quiet nobility and winning performances."