The Shaggs- Philosophy of the World (1969)

One of the worst crimes you could ever commit is go into this record without any context. If you go into this album blindly then you will be... almost mad at yourself and the Shaggs themselves, most specifically for both parties insulting your ears. This album was practically dying to not ever exist, these three teenage girls really didn't want to do this, and were practically forced to make this album happen, and then this was the final result. Just as Daniel Bonner said, "Of all the albums that have been recorded, this is certainly one of them."

Austin Wiggin Jr. is the man responsible for the entire existence of the band and album after his mom predicted he'd marry a strawberry blonde woman, have 2 sons born after her death and daughters that would perform a popular music group. Sooner or later, the first two events happened and Wiggin thought it was destiny to put his three daughters in a band, so he pulled them out of school to make them practice their instruments, got a deal with a shady record company and recorded all 12 tracks in a single day. The studio engineer even said they just weren't ready yet, Wiggin insisted on it. So what do you get when you put three teenage girls in the late 60's in a studio with no musical experience because of some "prophecy"? Well let's find out.

Track 1: Philosophy of the World

Like the lyrical GENIUSES these girls are, they come through with a banger of a track to open up the record with a very deep and personal message about society and how we all view the world through our own situations that we are born into. They explore all kinds of people and situations and in this very condense track, cover pretty much the entire world... Hence the title. The duet between the two of them... wait what. i dont know who sung on this record. The drums on this really bring out both guitars and everything compliments each other so well, its amazing.

Track 2: That Little Sports Car

This track follows the titular little sports car. The guitars on this one really bring out the vocalists and how amazing their voices are. The lyrical content on this is extremely rich in quality. It tells you a story about someone who follows a sports car and how tedious and time consuming that is, basically to end up where you started, or even in a worse position trying to chase these things you so desperately want and I think that is poetic

Track 3: Who Are Parents?

I see we are switching it up a bit by smacking the rim...? of the snare instead of the actual.. part you... hit it.... on........ but I like it. The guitar work on this is beautiful and their voices go smoothly along with it as well, truly a marvelous work of art. This song really makes me appreciate my parents because they are the ones who really care, are always there.

Track 4: My Pal Foot Foot

Having this be their most popular track, I was scared if this wouldn't be as great s the others, but I can see the massive hype that goes with it. The durmming really shines in this one and I love how they really give every member in the band a spotlight. I like to look at this song as an expansion of That Little Sports Car. It goes over the danger of roaming and Foot Foot is one of those lost souls who did bother to roam and the narrators of the track are desperately trying to find this character who would forever be lost, even though the narrators have more important things to do. Beautiful.

Track 5: My Companion

A nice callback to the previous track in terms of instrumentation, and this song really feels like part 3 of this adventure we are in. We now know the narrators explain their distaste in roaming, it happened to their friend that they like to call Foot Foot, and now that they finally found Foot Foot in the end of the previous song, they are never ever letting go of Foot Foot.

Track 6: I'm so Happy When You're Near

The story keeps on going. Now that we got introduced to Foot Foot, we now know that Foot Foot really makes the narrators happy and they bring them joy and that is a beautiful thing on it's own, however, we see sort of Foot Foot slipping back into their old ways of going away, to different roads, as they like to put it and I feel like this song is really there in order to make them stay a bit longer. I love how the guitars are so drowned out in this, they seem metaphorical to the state of which this person is in, very quiet and silenced and that is such an amazing and extremely hard thing to ever pull off

Track 7: Things I Wonder

One of the more melancholic tracks on here, a very emotional piece of a relationship that has basically gone toxic and very one sided. The narrators say that their mind often go places, they wonder about many things, but most importantly why their lover makes them cry and only feels joy in making her upset and I find that really touching and personal and even though this track is under 2 minutes, I cried by the end of this

Track 8: Sweet Thing

We find this person going back to this person, often missing the sense of happiness they felt when they were with this person, and they keep on insisting that this person is a "sweet thing" but the amount of times this person messed up, it's really hard to know if they are redeemable or not, even the instruments take a backseat in this song telling us that this is all about the lyrics. Here is my favourite excerpt: "You used to make me happy, now you make me sad / You told me many lies I never told you one" You can tell that it is from the heart when they don't even make the lyrics rhyme. Truly a work of its time

Track 9: It's Halloween

After 2 really sad songs about a failed relationship, we need a bouncy, fun, bright song about anything really, and truly the first song ever to be about halloween, it is doing the holiday justice by naming all sorts of appropriately themed nouns of the holiday and it really is a fun song and it deserves the popularity it got signifigantly

Track 10: Why Do I Feel?

As the longest song on here, it really doesn't drag on. The drums the DRUMS and GUITARS are going cRazY on this track, truly to symbolize the state of terror and panic that the song explores, it's something to marvel at, truly.

Track 11: What Should I Do?

We now see these narrators going into a state of confusion and desperately asking what should they do about this boy, he is so sad, but also bad, and never gives them any joy. not only that, but he never even wins a race. Ladies. If your man can't even win a race, he's not worth your time. It's really makes me wonder how they could've perfectly predicted the state of society and relationships today with such a simple, yet dynamic and interesting approach.

Track 12: We Have a Savior

As a song to close out the record, this couldn't have been more perfect. It calls back every song so well, by tying it all up in a pretty bow. I was a stone cold not-god-believer at the beginning of this record, and I came out of it by getting into my car and driving down to the nearest church to thank god that I listened to this blessed heavenly album

Overall, it was amazing, it was beautiful, I loved every second, every note, every drum beat that was out of sync, it is a work of art that goes widely unnoticed for some reason, and overall, a hidden gem that needs to blow up into the mainstream immediately.

11/10