On The Grateful Dead’s second album, the group indulges in rambling psychedelic rock with strong folk flavoring, leading with a three-part opening track that dips and weaves around its main riffs before finally giving way to the rest of the song.  Despite the large size of the band (at over half-a-dozen members), they find ways to make room for quiet focus on one or two instruments at a time within the sprawling tunes, which leads to sections that often feel more engaging than when all of the players are used simultaneously.  The end song “Caution (Do Not Stop on the Tracks)” provides a solid counter-point to this, with the group going as full-out psychedelic as they get on the album while omitting vocals, and though there’s some odd pacing through the course of it, the album comes together with its idiosyncrasies and oddities just fine.

Here’s the alternate cover art.

And the cover art used for some reissues.