British Psychedelia: The MagicMixture - This Is The Magic Mixture 1968 (2008 Sunbeam Records)

The Magic Mixture were one of dozens of psychedelic bands making the rounds of London's rock clubs in 1968, though they were the only ones who recorded an album for Saga Records, a cut-rate classical label who were making a brief foray into pop music.

The group's first and only album, This Is the Magic Mixture, is prized by collectors for its rarity, but as music it's fun and interesting without being especially remarkable. The liner notes to Sunbeam Records' reissue of This Is the Magic Mixture reproduces a promotional flyer in which the band describes their music as "Cream-Hendrix Style," and while that formula isn't terribly far off, the comparisons don't quite flatter the Magic Mixture; lead guitarist Terry Thomas (later a member of Charlie) was a fine player, but he lacked Jimi's flash and vision, while the band couldn't muster the same sort of blues power that Cream generated on an off night.

However, the group sounds admirably tight and well-focused, especially given the circumstances behind the recording of their sole album, which was essentially cut live in the studio in a single day. The songs are good if not great, especially the hard rock workout "You," the atmospheric "Moonbeams," and the trippy but propulsive "When I Was Young" (not the Animals hit, though not dissimilar).

As castoffs of the British psychedelic era go, This Is the Magic Mixture is better than most and the album has its pearly moments, but those not already enamored of such things will probably find themselves immune to its charms.(Mark Deming, allmusic.com)

A very good psychedelic pop album with a lot good songs. Have fun.(Frank)

Flac
mp3@320

SixtiesFolkModPsychedelicFreakbeat: John's Children - Smashed Blocked!

A must not only for T. Rex archaeologists, but for anyone with a yearning to discover what the best of British freakbeat sounds like, Smashed Blocked! reprises the six months or so that Marc Bolan spent with mod psychedelics John's Children in 1967, adding the group's two earlier 45s (the U.S. hit title track included), and a random selection of rarities and acetates to what would otherwise appear a fairly standard track listing. Most of the titles here have already appeared on a myriad compilations. Did they really need to be released one more time? Appearances can be deceptive.

Of the nine (out of 17) tracks that boast some kind of Bolan-ic intervention, only one has previously seen the light of day on official releases: the outtake "Hippy Gumbo." The singles "Midsummer Night's Scene" and "Remember Thomas A. Beckett," together with the post-Bolan "Come and Play With Me in the Garden" and "Jagged Time Lapse," are present as alternate takes with noticeable, if not precisely Earth-shattering differences; "Mustang Ford" and the backing track for "Sally Was an Angel" are familiar only from bootlegs; and the set comes to a shattering conclusion with four cuts from a 1967 BBC session, recorded shortly after drummer Chris Townson returned from a tour with the Who, where he sat in for a poorly Keith Moon. The reproduction is no better than the crunchy-sounding bootleg EP that appeared in the late '80s, and may even come from the same source. But at least it won't deteriorate any further. To this already mouthwatering selection can be added the original acetate pressing for "Smashed Blocked," still laboring beneath its working title of "The Love I Thought I'd Found," and the group's "lost" third Columbia label single, the fuzz-drenched "Not the Sort of Girl You'd Take to Bed."

There's also a reprise of "Strange Affair," without the pointless backward tape effects found on the Orgasm album release, plus another chance to hear Jeff Beck's crucial solo in the B-side "But She's Mine." And while the John's Children catalog still cries out for a decent housekeeping job, but at least the component parts are now in place. Around the same time as this album was released, a copy of the original "Midsummer Night Scene" 45 sold in England for over 4,000 dollars. Smashed Blocked grants the opportunity to hear what all that fuss is about for considerably less outlay than that.

 (DaveThompson, allmusic.com)

Flac 

mp3@320 

60's Brit Pop/Psychedelic/Baroque Pop: The Beethoven Soul - The Beethoven Soul (1967 Dot Records)

The band was founded around 1966 and existed until 1970. It was released in 1967 on Dot Records. Although it was full of good commercial pop songs, the band did not make the breakthrough and broke up in 1970. The album is fun throughout and is a forgotten pop jewel of the sixties.Enjoy.(Frank)

Flac
mp3@320

Psychedelic Pop, Garage Rock/Pop: The Creation - Action Painting (2017 The Numero Group, 2 Disc Box)

Of all the bands that almost made it in the swingin' '60s, the Creation are one of the most storied and most anthologized. Thanks to a small number of classic singles, especially the brilliant "Making Time," their incendiary stage show, and their guitarist Eddie Phillips' use of a violin bow to conjure otherworldly sounds out of his guitar, the art-pop freakbeat group is often seen as the quintessential lost band of the era.

The Numero Group's double-disc set Action Painting is the latest effort to make sure the Creation's music is given the attention it deserves. From the exhaustive booklet to the pristine remastering done by the group's original producer, Shel Talmy, it's the best-looking and best-sounding set yet.

It gathers up all their singles, tracks that never saw the light of day at the time but were later issued on compilations, a handful of songs cut by the band in its pre-Creation Mark Four incarnation, a small number of backing tracks, and, most interestingly for Creation obsessives, 15 new stereo mixes done by the collection's producer Alec Palao and approved by Talmy.

Hearing the songs yet again, it's clear that given a break here or there, or if they had managed to keep a stable lineup together, the Creation really could have been as big as the Small Faces or the Who. Songs like "Making Time," "Try and Stop Me," and "Biff, Bang, Pow" have the powerful crunch of the latter and the swaggering attitude of the former.

Add in Phillips' startling guitar work, Kenny Pickett's powerfully soulful vocals, and the punchy overall sound and you've got some timeless stuff. Even when the band reconfigured and lost Pickett's vocals, the other guys stepped up to fill the void, and later songs like "How Does It Feel to Feel" and "Life Is Just Beginning" have all the energy and power of the best music coming out of the U.K. at the time.

All their best songs are here, interspersed with the R&B covers and novelties bands had to do to survive the '60s. Even at their dorkiest though, when covering "Cool Jerk" or singing about dancing girls on "The Girls Are Naked," the Creation always had that special something that made everything they did sound alive and important.

In the years since the band split up, smart labels have made sure to keep the Creation's work available with varying degrees of quality. The Numero Group have done their usual top-notch job, and Action Painting is the best Creation collection yet. The remastering is clear and strong, the booklet is a great read, and the stereo mixes on the second record are an interesting diversion, opening up the sound a little and giving the guitars more room to breathe.

The band is a classic just-missed story, detailed in painstaking fashion in the booklet, but as Action Painting shows, the Creation's music lives on as some of the most exciting, most impressive sounds of the '60s.(Tim Sendra, allmusic.com)

To say it first: This is really a great collection by The Creation music. 46 tracks, a lot remixed and an exhaustive book with nearly 90 sites full of pics, discography, biography etc..Very well done cd box set. I don't tell you something about the music of the band because it's all said in the review byTim Sendra. Only this: They were one of the finest pop bands of the sixties and completely underrated. It's a pity. Enjoy.(Frank)

Flac
mp3@320

Garage/Psychedelic Pop Rock: The Strangeloves - I Want Candy - The Best Of The Strangeloves (1995 Legacy)

Released in 1965, I Want Candy is the sole LP from the legendary Brothers Strange -- Miles (Bob Feldman), Niles (Richard Gottehrer), and Giles (Jerry Goldstein) -- who may have been touted as wealthy Australian sheepherders, but were in reality three New York Brill Building composers/producers.

Their ruse as the Strangeloves started as an attempt to muscle their way back onto record surveys and radio play lists in the wake of the British Invasion pop music phenom. The trio's saga actually began several years earlier when neighborhood chums Feldman and Goldstein -- who had penned the theme to Alan Freed's The Big Beat TV show -- linked with Gottehrer in late 1960. The compatibility in their styles yielded an assignment to write for a prestigious roster boasting Chubby Checker, Little Eva, Dion, and the Angels as clients, the latter scoring significantly on Feldman, Goldstein, and Gottehrer's composition "My Boyfriend's Back."

Once the Beatles opened the floodgates for an across-the-pond sonic sortie, FG&G's songs were no longer in demand. Guided by the age-old axiom "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," the team decided to reinvent themselves. After Ahmet Ertegun, then head of Atlantic Records, heard their fairly straightforward cover of "Bo Diddley," he hooked them up with Bert Berns, who had just formed his own Bang imprint. At Berns' suggestion, they wrote new deliciously lascivious lyrics and voilà, had their first and highest charting (number 11) side. This was followed by the R&B-infused "Cara-Lin," another success that was based on a riff lifted from the Routers' clap-happy pep-rally anthem "Let's Go." Their final Top 40 venture came in the form of the harder punk-ish "Night Time," sounding more like a lo-fi garage band than skilled and seasoned pros. The infectious groove resulted in a bluesy attitude-laden rocker whose incessantly pumping rhythm was punctuated by a thin gnarly electric guitar and adeptly executed vocal harmonies in the chorus.

When the dozen-track I Want Candy album was released, it included remakes of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," Johnny Otis' "Willie and the Hand Jive," and the Creole paean "New Orleans," which had been a hit for Gary "U.S." Bonds. However, most of the platter is comparative fluff, in light of the diversity and strength of the singles. Enthusiasts and collectors will want to take note that "Night Time" was edited for the 45 by nearly a minute. That rendering is located on Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, while the full-length version can be found here. When the Strangeloves were anthologized in the digital domain, the 12 selections from I Want Candy were augmented, boasting eight additional cuts for 1995's I Want Candy: The Best of the Strangeloves. The upgrade also offers much of their catalog debut in stereo.(Lindsay Planer, allmusic.com)

 Of course the band tried to adapt to the ''British Invasion'' zeitgeist (mainly in the cover songs), which they did not succeed so well in my opinion. But they developed something like their own sound and that sound i still enjoy it a lot. Enjoy.(Frank)

Flac
mp3@320

German Psychedelic Pop, Pop Rock, Folk Rock: Improved Sound Limited - Improved Sound Limited 1971 (2001 Longhair)

When IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED recorded their eponymous double LP with the renowned label Liberty/United Artists in 1971 the young Nuremburgers (all born in 1947) already had a colourful musical past behind them...

They started, in 1961, with skiffle music and after a modern jazz phase and under the influence of the rising rock scene they settled with rock and pop music. Before this they were called The Blizzards and during their school holidays in August 1965 were German pop singer Roy Black's backing band playing Elvis, Cliff Richard and Roy Orbison songs. When Black recorded 'Du bist nicht allein' (You're not alone) the boys decided he was and took a new direction. The timing, 1966, was perfect as Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio) held a competition called 'Meet the Beat' with 80 bands. IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED won and were able to record a single of their winning song 'It Is You' b/w 'We Are Alone' for Polydor. New doors were opened for the band after winning the rock competition. At the time, society figures often hired rock bands for weddings, which is how IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED met Munich film producer Rob Houwer who put them in touch with director Michael Verhoeven. With a demo presentation the band won a competition to record the soundtrack to his film 'Engelchen macht weiter hoppe-hoppe Reiter'. The music was released as an LP in 1969 on Cornet. This was IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED's breakthrough.

In the following years they recorded for many other films and in 1969 they released another single on Polydor called 'Sing Your Song' b/w 'Marvin Is Dead'.

10 years after they began their musical careers they released their double LP 'Improved Sound Limited' which now appears on CD for the first time (mixing and mastering: Jörg Scheuermann). In a lucid review the Improved musicians were called 'Rock Old-timers'. This, at first glance disrespectful description of the young musicians turned out with further reading to be a sign of respect. The LP was a stylistic curriculum vitae of 23-year-old Rock Old-timers, 10 years live experience in smoky cellars and bars between Bochum and Radolfzell pressed into grooves. A prominent feature of the record production, amazing musical skills aside, was the depth of experience that the band had gained through playing live and in the studio.

IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED achieved a perfect blend of spontaneity and creativity together with modern recording techniques: 'This album has been recorded with a high level of professional ability'. Every note, every word stands on its own: Axel Linstädt wrote the music and his brother Bernd wrote the words. Even the production work, for which bands like the Rolling Stones or the Beatles engage international stars like Jimmy Miller, George Martin or Phil Spector, was done by the band themselves. This is why the sound of the double album, with all its various styles is unmistakable. Music and text are one unit, they compliment and interpret each other and mirror the musicians' consciousness. The individual lyrics deal with issues their authors were concerned with, yet never become pedantic routine but rather rock to listen and to dance to. Maybe it's this profanity with this Improved Music that spontaneously captivates. Only on the third hearing does one realise how much more there is to it. And that is: 'five young people's critical reflections on their environment and circumstances through music' (Reiner Weiss, Nürnberger Nachrichten, 20th/21st May 1971).

    In the newspaper 'Münchener Abendzeitung' the then 24 year old head of literature (and later editor-in-chief of 'Stern' magazine) Michael Jürgs acknowledged IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED as being in the Anglo-Saxon class, praised the unique style as a mark of quality and pondered that if ever there was going to be a rock opera like Tommy in Germany, IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED were the only ones capable of it. Franz Schöler, a famous German rock critic, described the double-LP as 'the best German rock production since the Beatles Live LP by Tony Sheridan'. In his book 'Let it Rock' (München-Wien 1975) he included it in the very exclusive 'Discography of Epoch-Making Rock Records 1954-1974'.It's incredible that the band and their double LP were not just positively received in the music press but also in the arts sections of highbrow newspapers. This was going against the grain of German Rock. Rather than play Progressive or Kraut Rock they filtered out their melodic idiosyncrasies and played high quality rock music, timeless and grandiose, a milestone in German rock and pop history.

In 1973 IMPROVED SOUND LIMITED released an LP, 'Catch a Singing Bird on the Road', on CBS and 4 years later, as Condor but with the same line-up, another LP 'Rathbone Hotel'.                                                                                                                                                                       

One of the finest 60/70s bands from Germany. This is no ''Krautrock'' and the songs they wrote and recorded for movies are not usual ''soundtracks''. The band played very nice pop music and were very different to the other popular german bands back then. From the very beginning they had gone their own way. They worked for a lot of film productions and their first album release showed the strong self consciousness of the band, they released a double album. And you can hear it now (if you haven't it already) here on this disc. Enjoy.(Frank)

Flac (zippy)                                       Flac (M)

mp3@320 (zippy)                             mp3@320 (M)

                                pass: SB1

Sixties Pop, Psychedelic Pop: Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Looking Glass (A Collection) (1992 Legacy, Columbia)

During the late '60s -- a period forever distinguished as rock's most radical, innovative, and far-reaching -- Gary Puckett and the Union Gap forged a series of massive chart ballads almost otherworldly in their sheer earnestness and melodrama. Likely the only pop band of the era to play two nightly shows in the Catskills -- the early gig for their younger fans, the later appearance for the fans' parents -- the group pioneered the hip-to-be-square concept two decades before spiritual descendants Huey Lewis and the News; clad in Civil War-era get-ups (complete with fictitious military ranks) and bizarrely pedophilic lyrics, Puckett and the Union Gap were in their own way as far-out and singular as any other act of the period.

Frontman Puckett was born October 17, 1942, in of all places Hibbing, MN, (where Bob Dylan went to high school). Raised primarily in Yakima, WA, he picked up the guitar as a teen, and while attending college in San Diego played in a number of local bands before quitting school to focus on music. Puckett eventually landed with the Outcasts, a hard rock group comprised of bassist Kerry Chater, keyboardist Gary "Mutha" Withem, tenor saxophonist Dwight Bement, and drummer Paul Wheatbread. Despite earning a strong local following, in 1966 Wheatbread relocated to Los Angeles to serve as the house drummer on the television series Where the Action Is; the remaining members of the Outcasts toured the Pacific Northwest, and on their return, Wheatbread also moved back to San Diego and rejoined the lineup. For reasons unknown, manager Dick Badger -- convinced his charges needed a strong visual hook -- then sent the group to Tijuana, where they were outfitted with Union Army-style Civil War uniforms.

A demo was soon cut in L.A., and Badger arranged a meeting with CBS producer Jerry Fuller. Though impressed by Puckett's soaring baritone, Fuller believed the band's gritty, R&B-influenced approach was all wrong, but agreed to check out their live show at the San Diego bowling alley the Quad Room. Believing Fuller was due to arrive on Saturday, the Outcasts opted to save their energy, delivering an atypically mellow set on Friday night. Fuller, who was in the crowd for both shows, signed the group contingent on their willingness to foster their latent soft rock leanings. Re-christened the Union Gap in honor of a suburb of Yakima, on August 16, 1967, the band recorded its first single, "Woman Woman." Suggesting a mellower Righteous Brothers sans producer Phil Spector's majestic firepower, the single reached the Top Ten late in 1967 and was a million-seller by February of 1968; concurrent CBS press releases gave each member his own imaginary military rank -- Puckett was the general, Bement the sergeant, Chater the corporal, and both Withem and Wheatbread were relegated to privates.

In the spring of 1968, the Union Gap scored their biggest hit, "Young Girl," written by Fuller in the style of "Woman, Woman," but exchanging the age-old theme of infidelity for the age-old theme of the temptation of underage romance: "My love for you is way out of line/you better run, girl, you're much too young, girl," an anguished Puckett wailed. The juggernaut rolled on, and the group continued rattling off hits -- "Lady Willpower," "Over You," and "Don't Give in to Him" among them -- and also headlined at the White House and Disneyland. But there was dissension in the ranks: the Union Gap wanted to write and produce their own material, and Puckett found himself increasingly confined within the CBS-mandated ballad formula. In 1969, stalemate: Fuller assembled a 40-piece studio orchestra for a new song he had written, but Puckett and the Union Gap refused to cut the tune. The session was ultimately canceled, and Fuller never again worked with the group. For the Union Gap, it was a pyrrhic victory.

The band immediately returned to the Top Ten that autumn with the Dick Glasser-produced "This Girl Is a Woman Now," but it was to be their last hit. The follow-up, "Let's Give Adam and Eve Another Chance," tanked, and after management dictated that Puckett's bandmates now receive a weekly salary instead of a percentage of the revenue, Chater and Withem left the band. Bement assumed bass duties, keyboardist Barry McCoy and horn player Richard Gabriel were added, and gospel vocalists the Eddie Kendrick Singers also signed on. The Civil War gear was soon jettisoned, but even so, prospects did not improve. In 1970, Puckett began recording as a solo act, but his efforts were not well-received; the Union Gap remained his live backing unit, until they were dismissed following an appearance at the 1971 Orange County Fair. Puckett's contract with CBS was terminated one year later.

Puckett continued making solo appearances in the months to come, but by 1973 he had essentially disappeared from music, opting instead to study acting and dance. He performed in theatrical productions in and around L.A., but his acting career never really took off, and in 1984 he signed on with the Happy Together oldies package tour. Two years later, Puckett was tapped to open for the Monkees on their 20th Anniversary tour, and he remained a staple of the revival circuit into the next century. Among his original bandmates, Bement later joined the oldies act Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids, while Chater relocated to Nashville, where he plied his trade as a songwriter. Wheatbread, meanwhile, turned to concert promotion, and Withem returned to San Diego to teach high-school band.(Jason Ankeny, allmusic.com)

Since the first time i heard the band i really loved their sound. Hope you will have fun, too.(Frank)
Flac
mp3@320

Sixties Sunshine/Folk Rock/AM Pop: The Love Exchange - The Love Exchange 1968 (2001 Sundazed)

The Love Exchange's only album is an obscure also-ran psychedelic effort, though it's not poor. "Swallow the Sun," their most familiar tune due to its appearance on some '60s anthologies, is the standout on this assortment of rudimentary trippy garage-psych explorations. The minor-key yet poppy melodic progressions, leaning on snaky guitar lines and organ, are typical of much 1966-1968 California hippie rock. The tunes, however (often written by producer Larry Goldberg), are derivative and the lyrics self-conscious in their incense-tuous air. The production sometimes verges on the hasty and crude; Bonnie Blunt's voice, usually the focal point, is deserving of better material and arrangements. The folk-rock quotient comes to the fore on two of the better tunes, the appropriately melancholy and ghostly "Ballad of a Sad Man" (written by bassist Mike Joyce) and "Nothing at All," on which Blunt cedes the lead vocal position to one of the guys. The latter song, in fact, has a garage folk-rock air (and unrefined production) that leads one to suspect that it may have been cut earlier than most or all of the other tracks on the record. The 2001 Sundazed reissue has three previously unissued cuts (including a couple of awful quasi-showtune ditties) and three alternate takes of songs from the LP. (R.Unterberger, allmusic.com)

Bio 

The Love Exchange were a typical support-level Los Angeles band of the psychedelic era, right down to their name. Their chief claim to fame is their 1967 single "Swallow the Sun," a nice folk-rock-psychedelic tune that's emblematic of the time with its trippily optimistic lyrics, garage-like Mamas & the Papas female-male harmonies, and swirling organ.

The record was anthologized on the Los Angeles portion of the Highs in the Mid Sixties series, and also on the folk-rock volume of the vinyl Nuggets series on Rhino in the '80s. They also managed to put out an LP in 1968 that, in addition to featuring "Swallow the Sun," had an assortment of psych-folk-pop crossover efforts; "Swallow the Sun," incidentally, is a cover of song by the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, "Dark on You Now," with some different lyrics.

The Love Exchange grew out of some teenage surf and garage bands in the Los Angeles suburb of Westchester. It was teenage singer Bonnie Blunt who was the group's strongest asset, giving them the competent vocals in the soaring, folky Mamas & the Papas/early Jefferson Airplane style. (As an interesting trivial note, the first woman singer in the Love Exchange was Laura Hale, daughter of actor Alan Hale, famous as the skipper on Gilligan's Island.) They weren't accomplished writers, though, and on their sole album, much of the material was penned by producer Larry Goldberg. These were garage-psych-folk-rock efforts with their utopian, rose-colored lyrics and organ-modal-guitar combinations, like a minor league Peanut Butter Conspiracy. The aura of psychsploitation was enhanced when Goldberg took some of the LP's backing tracks and added vocals by non-group members to create a Christian rock album credited to the Crusaders. Some of the album's songs were also used on a soundtrack album for a musical titled How Now, Dow Jones, credited there to the Floor Traders. And, finally, the songs did come out in their original form on an LP actually billed as a Love Exchange record, as it should have been all along.

None of this helped the Love Exchange gain much credibility, although they played often in Los Angeles and at some festivals. In keeping with their general lack of consistent packaging, their name was changed to Charity in the late '60s for an album on Uni, although as it ended up, organist Walter Flannery was the only member who performed on that LP. They were still performing as the Love Exchange live at that point, but broke up after appearing at the Newport '69 Pop Festival in Southern California. (R.Unterberger, allmusic.com)

Flac (zippy)                                                        Flac (M)

mp3 (zippy)                                                        mp3 (M)

                                 pass: SB1

Neo Psychedelia Pop (or something like that) By The Lemon Twigs - Do Hollywood (2016 4AD)

The D'Addario brothers, Michael and Brian, must have grown up on a steady diet of oddball singer/songwriters and weird '70s pop, absorbing it like it was candy until they were able to create their own strange and wonderful version that merrily blended the two styles until they became one crazy one.

They started their group, the Lemon Twigs, when they were teens and caught the ear of someone at 4AD, who decided the public was ready for two flamboyantly dressed prodigies who thought the idea of Sparks playing Nilsson songs or Todd Rundgren covering the Randy Newman songbook was a good idea. Actually, it turns out to be a great idea and their debut album, Do Hollywood, is the sound of a couple young guys (plus very sympathetic producer Jonathan Rado of Foxygen) letting it all hang out over the course or ten surprising, thrilling, infuriating, instantly memorable songs.

The brothers share all the musical and vocal duties to the point where it feels like the work of one bedroom-bound space case intent on defying expectations at every turn. Within the course of one song (take "As Long as We're Together" as an example), one can find soul-baring lyrics, glass-cracking falsettos, uplifting choruses, rinky-dink synths, left-field tempo changes, unexpected instruments, and simply strummed acoustic guitars.

Add in some AOR-ready guitar soloing and production choices that sound selected at random from a list of so-bad-that-they're-good ideas, and one has a basic idea of what might be found on Do Hollywood.

It's both breathtakingly refreshing that the brothers don't play anything straight and a puzzling pain in the neck when they do something wacky that they might not have needed to do. Some of the tracks are so nice and pretty that it's wrenching when they throw in a sped-up circus marching band or a proggy synth diversion.

Then again, how many more records overloaded with earnest singer/songwriter tropes can the world take before it drowns in a flood of grey-tinted introspective diary entries? No worries of that here; these guys are too nuts to ever be boring or average. At their best, they are capable of creating songs that take off like jet planes at dusk ("Hi+Lo"), strut wobbly like Paul Williams on a bender ("I Wanna Prove to You"), and hit the perfect spot between heartbreakingly sweet and just plain odd.

The record's best tune, "Baby, Baby," is one of these and it sounds like a cross between the Muppets and vintage Flaming Lips. The few moments on the record when the brothers push it a bit too far, like the annoyingly quirky "Those Days Is Comin' Soon," are outweighed by those when they sound like the best thing to come along since the bands they so clearly idolize. It may only be their debut, but the boys of the Lemon Twigs sound like they've got it all figured out.(Tim Sendra, allmusic.com)

You can say a lot of this guys and their 2016 album ''Do Hollywood'' but what you can't say is they are a boring band with a boring album. It's exactly the opposite of an boring album and so are the D'Addario brothers. This album is one of the finest pop albums of the last years and that's no exaggeration. This is a rollercoaster of different sixties/seventies styles with a modern production and an excellent songwriting. I love this album and it will only excelled by one thing: their new longplayer ''Go To School'' released this week. Enjoy the D'Addario brothers.(Frank)

Flac
mp3@320