The Byrds' fourth album in two years, named after a line of lyrics from Bob Dylan's My Back Pages, was one of the most consistent records in the group's oeuvre. A remarkable achievement considering that front man Gene Clark had left the group shortly before. The opening track, featuring a jazzy trumpet solo by Hugh Masekela, was a sardonic sneer at the success of prefab groups like The Monkees, and
… today sounds more topical than ever. Younger Than Yesterday contains purely original compositions, except for the aforementioned Dylan cover, with hardly any filling material. In those own compositions the personalities of the individual members slowly become clear. Have You Seen Her Face, Time Between and The Girl With No Name anticipate Chris Hillman's later country rock work, and the dreamy melody and jazzy chords of Everybody's Has Been Burned could only come from David Crosby's sleeve. But despite the differences in emphasis, Younger Than Yesterday is a coherent record that showed the rich possibilities of the exploding pop scene. It therefore fits perfectly in the list of records such as Rubber Soul (The Beatles) and Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys) from the same era, although The Byrds lagged far behind their competitors in commercial terms at the time. (MS) It therefore fits perfectly in the list of records such as Rubber Soul (The Beatles) and Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys) from the same era, although The Byrds lagged far behind their competitors in commercial terms at the time. (MS) It therefore fits perfectly in the list of records such as Rubber Soul (The Beatles) and Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys) from the same era, although The Byrds lagged far behind their competitors in commercial terms at the time. (MS)more