Gram Parsons's second studio album Grievous Angel was released in January 1974. It was his last album after he died of a morphine and alcohol overdose in September 1973. The album more prominently features Emmylou Harris than his first album GP and Parsons was reportedly very pleased with the results of the album although he had only written two entirely new songs (the other Parsons-originals date back several years). The album received critical acclaim at the time of its release and has gone on to be considered one of the greatest albums of all time. As with all of Parsons's other albums, Grievous Angel sold poorly upon release.
Although GP featured a lot of slow numbers that allowed Parsons to show off his vocals, Grievous Angel is where he, with the help of Harris, nails the vulnerability on all of them, especially on "Brass Buttons," his reflection on his mother's premature death, and "In My Hour of Darkness," a poignant song about the recent deaths of his friends. He also relaxes, throwing in "I Can't Dance" and "Ooh Las Vegas," probably his most straightforward and fun songs ever. I do wish that Parsons' had written more original material for the album, but mostly because the originals that do show up are among his best he's written from a lyrical point of view. "Return of the Grievous Angel" and "$1000 Wedding" are both mangled stories--hard to follow but crushing anyway. Despite a few slip ups--"Hickory Wind" is almost mediocre here--this is the best posthumous album I've heard. A-
