Amon Duul - Paradieswärts Düül (1970/1997)

Paradieswärts Düül Review by Ned Raggett
Surprisingly, the third Amon Düül album wasn't recorded at the jam session which produced the band's other major releases; even more surprisingly, Para Dieswärts sounded next to nothing like the other three. Out went the rough and ready drumming, stomping, and chanting; in went an extremely delicate sense of expansive songwriting, retaining the predilection for length (the shortest of the album's three songs was almost eight minutes long) but otherwise aiming at a new kind of tastefulness.

This said, a completely radical reinvention this isn't; while the first track, the sidelong "Love Is Peace," has plenty of stuff none of the other albums did (intelligible lyrics in English no less, soft guitar melodies, low-key flutes, and more), that sense of simple rhythms and riffs repeated and slightly changed and altered over the course of the song predominates nonetheless. The song has a solid, sweet groove to it, becoming a singalong in the chorus almost in spite of itself; a slightly wigged-out midsection, with flange and echo, soon dissipates into acoustic fingerpicking and strumming rather than completely going nuts. "Snow Your Thirst and Open Your Mouth" approaches the other albums a bit more closely as well, in sounding like it could easily be a jam (the percussion especially sounds like a cousin to the freak-outs elsewhere), although it's far more restrained overall. "Paramechanische Welt" closes the record with a folky acoustic guitar, droning strings, and piano strum that moves along well, even without percussion until halfway through; it makes for a lovely conclusion to a surprising record.

1. Amon Düül - Love Is Peace
2. Amon Düül - Snow Your Thirst and Sun Your Open Mouth
3. Amon Düül - Paramechanische Welt
4. Amon Düül - Eternal Flow
5. Amon Düül - Paramechanical World