Various-Soft Sounds For Gentle People Vol.3

 

01. Mojo - Candle To Burn 

02. The West Coast Branch - Where Is The Door? 

03. The Pope Dream - January Girl 

04. The Fun & Games - Close To Carmel 

05. Bryan - Learn To Love 

06. Le Cirque - Land Of Oz 

07. Jim & Jean - Time Goes Backwards 

08. The Hing Jury - Buses 

09. The Status Cymbal - Lovin' Day 

10. Jacobson & Tansley - Dream With Me 

11. The Second Helping - Floating Downstream On An Inflatable Rubber Raft 

12. The Stained Glass - The Scene In Between 

13. Condello - Oh No 

14. The Cinnamon Ship - October Rain

15. A.M. Gately - Battle In The City 

16. P.K. Limited - My Imagination 

17. The Elastik Band - In A Family Tree 

18. The Gainsbourgh Gallery - Light In The Window 

19. Anthony Green & BarryY Stagg - Life & Love 

20. The Music Bachs - Life And Death 

21. The Storybook People - Do You Believe 

22. The Serendipity Singers - Rain Doll 

23. Mid Day Rain - Welcome To The Rain 

24. The Sundowners - Ring Out Wild Bells 

2004

Review:

This series of CDs from Pet Records is supposed to be devoted to sunshine pop releases from the 

second half of the 1960s -- but most of the acts here know a good beat when they find it. 

Starting with the Mojo Men (billed by this time as Mojo) doing "Candle to Burn," the makers have 

generally chosen psych-pop sides with a beat. Even the most "produced" side here, "January Girl" 

by Pipedream (who apparently didn't exist as a group), manages to throw together enough of a 

rhythm section and effects to make it worthwhile psychedelic rock, even if the song itself sounds 

like a leftover from a sub-Hair musical. The Fun and Games apparently hailed from Texas, but that 

didn't stop them from sounding as spaced-out and languidly pretty as their trippy California 

surroundings on "Close to Carmel." Bryan's mysterious "Learn to Love" actually comes off as 

closer to psychedelic rock (with a decent beat) than most of the rest here, despite its being 

the product of a studio ensemble -- Tommy Roe producer Steve Clark evidently knew how to create 

those sounds on the fly. Leon Russell was one of the prime movers of Le Cirque, along with Marc 

Benno and Jerry Riopelle of Parade, and for a piece with a fairly conventional brass-loaded 

accompaniment, it does achieve a colorful effect with its trippy lyrics. The disc gets better as 

it goes along, the talent of the results (or both) becoming very imposing midway through -- far 

and away the best cut on this album is "Time Goes Backwards" by Jim & Jean, the folk duo; this 

psychedelic folk track is a totally unexpected permutation of their sound that lingers long after 

it's over. The Hung Jury's "Buses" is also pleasant psych pop in a Monkees-like mode, and "Lovin' 

Day" by the Status Cymbal is a surprisingly garage punk-ish cut to come out of Felton Jarvis' 

orbit in Nashville. Jacobson & Tansley were a virtually unknown Curt Boettcher project from 1966, 

whose "Dream With Me" managed to chart in New York and Cleveland, and deserved better. And the 

Second Helping's mouthful of a title, "Floating Downstream on an Inflatable Rubber Ball" -- which 

prominently features a pre-Loggins & Messina Kenny Loggins, with sitar and spacey lyrics -- makes 

for surprisingly pleasant listening. Less interesting and more ponderous is Stained Glass' "A 

Scene In Between," which is more pure psychedelia than sunshine pop -- produced by Rick Jarrard, 

it does have a nicely brittle lead guitar part that recalls the 12-string on "Eight Miles High" 

slowed down a bit.

 ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide