The Family That Plays Together

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Professional reviews
The Family That Plays Together

Studio album by Spirit
Released	1968
Recorded	1968
Genre	Rock
Label	Epic Records/Legacy Recordings
Producer(s)	Lou Adler
All Music Guide link
Spirit chronology
Spirit (1968)	The Family That Plays Together (1968)	Clear (1969)

The Family That Plays Together, the second of four albums released by the original Spirit lineup, was marketed by Ode Records in 1968. Unlike its predecessor, Spirit, their self-titled and surreal debut, The Family That Plays Together evinces more greatly the band's ability for playing beyond the genre of psychedelic rock than within it. Tracks "It Shall Be" and "Silky Sam" demonstrate the ease with which the ensemble can incorporate jazz into their idiosyncratic form of rock, while "Jewish" and "Aren't You Glad" evidenced the band's competence in exploiting, to their advantage, both world music and jam rock respectively. The inspiration behind entitling The Family is alleged to have derived from the stepson-stepfather relationship guitarist Randy California and percussionist Ed Cassidy shared.

At some point after the album's first issue, the final mixes for the album were lost. Because of this, all subsequent CD releases by Sony, as well as the recent vinyl re-issue by Sundazed Records, are taken from new mixes made from the original multi-track tapes (the tracks that appeared on the Time Circle compilation were re-mixed as well, though the mixes differ) by Bob Irwin, Randy California and Ed Cassidy in 1996. Though interest in the group's work was revived by Sony's CD reissues, there was no reference to the tracks being remixed in the liner notes. A general comparison between the original LP and the 1996 CD reissue makes this point obvious, however (though there is a broad reference to remastering and remixing in the liner notes for the Clear album reissue, it doesn't point out just what was remixed), and people who have more than a passing interest in the work should consider tracking down the original version on vinyl, as there are substantial differences in some places.

The 1996 compact disc reissue also contains five bonus tracks. Two of these appeared on the 1991 Time Circle compilation, while the other three are previously unissued.