Comments:

Although the group had strong roots in American folk music, you may probably call it an early power-pop album, with McGuinn's jangly guitar as a characteristic. The group's very fine vocal harmonies are another strong feature; the voices seem to blend effortlessly and naturally with each other. The main contributors to the songwriting are Bob Dylan, who was responsible for the group's breakthrough with Mr. Tambourine Man, and the group's own Gene Clark, who with his fine contributions such as "I Feel a Whole Lot Better", Here Without You", "I Knew I'd Want You” and a few pieces written with guitarist Jim (Roger) McGuinn showed a format that was to picure the group in the early years. As musicians, the group developed quickly, and despite skepticism from producers and others, the group's members insisted on playing the instruments themselves on the album, after the debut single had featured studio musicians.

The group's cover versions of Bob Dylan's songs are all very fine, and the arrangements are markedly different from Dylan's originals, which primarily consisted of acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals. "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "Chimes of Freedom" are lesser known songs from the album "Another Side of Bob Dylan", but here in The Byrds' versions they sound like potential hits. "All I Really Want to Do", which was the follow-up to the single "Mr Tambourine Man", was actually a hit, although not on the level of its predecessor.

Gene Clark's "I Feel a Whole Lot Better" is an upbeat number that has borrowed a bit from the guitar riff on "Needles and Pins", and English The Searchers can easily be compared to the Byrds in several ways. The track was later covered by The Flamin' Groovies. "Here Without You" is a very beautiful ballad with fine vocal harmonies. The same can be said about "I Knew I'd Want You", which was the B-side to the debut single. There is also a nice bonus track written by Clark, namely "She Has a Way", which could have deserved to be included on the original album.

The two Clark/McGuinn collaborations are also great; "It's No Use" is upbeat and somewhat in the style of the early Jefferson Airplane, who had also taken their base in folk music. "You Won't Have to Cry" is one of the album's strongest tracks, and even though it was actually a track that was written and recorded earlier, it has a sound that points towards the subsequent album "Turn! Turn! Turn!”, which took its title from the Pete Seeger song of the same name and which also became the group's second big hit. Seeger has also written "Bells of Rhymney", which The Byrds here give a very nice new interpretation of.

"Don't Doubt Yourself Babe" written by Jackie De Shannon is one of the least interesting tracks on the album and "We'll Meet Again" is . . . well, you know. The album is very nicely produced by Terry Melcher, who later produced some of the finest albums released by Paul Revere and the Raiders.