 When the Byrdmaniax album was released on June 23 , 1971 it was received poorly by most critics and did much to undermine the new @-@ found popularity that the Byrds had enjoyed since the release of Ballad of Easy Rider . The response to the album from the American music press was particularly scathing , with a review in the August 1971 edition of Rolling Stone magazine describing the Byrds as " a boring dead group " and memorably dismissing the entire album as " increments of pus " . The consensus among most reviewers was that Byrdmaniax was hampered by Melcher 's inappropriate orchestration and by being an album almost totally bereft of the Byrds ' signature sound . The band themselves were publicly critical of the album upon its release , with Gene Parsons referring to it as " Melcher 's folly " . For his part , Melcher later stated that he felt that the band 's performances in the studio during the making of Byrdmaniax were lackluster and he therefore employed the orchestration in order to cover up the album 's musical shortcomings . Regardless , by the time of the album 's release , Melcher had resigned as the Byrds ' manager and producer . Despite the band 's dissatisfaction with the finished product and its poor critical reception , Byrdmaniax made a respectable showing on the U.S. charts , peaking at number 46 . However , the album failed to sell in sufficient quantities to reach the UK charts . Author Christopher Hjort has noted that in the years since its release , Byrdmaniax has become arguably " the least @-@ liked album in the Byrds catalogue " among the group 's fanbase . 
