Eli and the Thirteenth Confession — 1968

Background

Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was released in 1968, the second album by a songwriter who had already, by this point, written hits for other artists including The 5th Dimension before this record properly established her own distinctive artistic voice. Laura Nyro's compositions draw together Brill Building pop songcraft, gospel, soul and jazz influences into a style that was distinctly her own, marked by unconventional song structures and a highly theatrical, dynamic vocal delivery.

Sound

'Stoned Soul Picnic' and 'Sweet Blindness' both showcase Nyro's gift for a joyful, gospel-inflected melody, songs that would go on to become hits for other artists even as her own versions remained comparatively under-recognised commercially. 'Eli's Comin'' builds a tense, theatrical arrangement around a driving piano figure, one of several songs on the record that move through multiple distinct sections rather than settling into a conventional verse-chorus structure.

Songwriting

Nyro's compositions frequently shift tempo, key and mood within a single song, a structural restlessness that set her apart from more conventionally structured singer-songwriters of the period and drew direct comparisons to composers working in musical theatre as much as to her pop and soul contemporaries. Her vocal performances match this structural ambition, moving between a hushed, intimate delivery and full-throated gospel-influenced belting within the same song.

Legacy

Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is widely regarded as Laura Nyro's creative peak and one of the most significant, if still somewhat underappreciated, achievements of late-1960s singer-songwriter music, admired by numerous major artists who covered her songs even as her own recordings received less immediate mainstream attention. Her influence on the more theatrical, structurally ambitious end of singer-songwriter and soul music has only become more widely recognised in the decades since release.