In their 10th year, the Grateful Dead recorded one of their most ambitious albums since the late 1960's, with songwriting and songs that were as out-there, jam-filled, and as psychedelic as the music they were making in 1968-1969. Both side 1 and side 2 featured instrumental passages that show a band digging deep into the depths of their creativity, with 'Silpknot!', 'King Solomon's Marbles', 'Stronger Than Dirt or Milkin' the Turkey', 'Sage & Spirit', and parts of the 'Blues For Allah' suite being some of the wildest instrumentals the Dead ever recorded in the studio. Add to this such masterpieces as 'Help on the Way', 'Franklin's Tower', 'The Music Never Stopped', and 'Crazy Fingers', and you have one of the Dead's most consistently great albums that stands the test of time, and sounds more from the future than the past.