by Bruce Eder
Among the later Byrds albums, Untitled was always the one to own, even if you weren't a huge fan. Issued back in 1970 as a two-priced-as-one LP, Untitled was one of the few modest commercial successes for the latter-day group. &Eight Miles High& is the high point, a 15-minute jam that showcases this band's prowess. The studio sides aren't to be overlooked, however -- the group by this time was modifying its established sound into more of a '70s mode, and the influence of new members Gene Parsons and Skip Battin was showing up, pushing aside the familiar timbre of Roger McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker in favor of a leaner country-rock orientation. On some of this material (especially the Parsons-Battin &Yesterday's Train& and Battin's &Well Come Back Home&), they sound more like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The only song on the album to get heard by people other than serious Byrds fanatics was McGuinn's &Chestnut Mare,& but &Truck Stop Girl,& &All the Things,& the group's version of Leadbelly's &Take a Whiff on Me,& and, especially, &Just a Season& (maybe the prettiest song McGuinn has ever written) also hold up very well. Other numbers, like the environmental ode &Hungry Planet,& are more of an acquired taste.