It’s still weird to think an album this strange, discombobulating, and forward-looking is more than a half-century old; there are ideas in here that other bands have designed entire careers around. But for The Red Crayola, at this point a trio of Mayo Thompson, Frederick Barthelme and Steve Cunningham, with assorted friends as ‘The Familiar Ugly,’ ideas were flying through the air, ready to be collected, explored, and jettisoned, in quick succession. Ultimately, what they did on The Parable of Arable Land was make a crude, clunky psychedelic rock that was completely compelling in the way it left all its jagged edges showing, and then surrounded it with the clatter of untutored, free-form improvisation. A wild idea – but “Hurricane Fighter Plane” and “Transparent Radiation” are classics to this day.

– Jon Dale