Laura Nyro: New York Tendaberry

More Than a New Discovery introduced Laura Nyro as a writer whose originality fit late-1960s pop radio, leading many artists to cover her songs for hit records. Eli and the Thirteenth Confession elevated her from behind-the-scenes hitmaker to pop auteur, with distinctive packaging that displayed lyrics and music filled with vision, meaning, and symphonic drama. New York Tendaberry, released in fall 1969, features Nyro mostly alone at the piano and avoids the pop choruses and easy emotions of earlier work. The songs often feel unfinished to collaborators, and the album’s critical acclaim and influence remain closely tied to Nyro’s own perspective, with death and the devil dominating the writing.

"The average song length is around four minutes, and each one covers so much ground, changes direction so suddenly, and welcomes so many lyrical interpretations, that each of them can feel like the centerpiece, the moment where the central action takes place. Death and the devil dominate the writing,"

Read at Pitchfork