Okay then, here we go. Am I first? Seriously? Wow. Well anyway...
Surprisingly --- for me at least, who expected to hear hippy-dippy **** mostly, shows what I know! --- there's some really quite heavy-ish guitar on this --- sounds like Carlos but I doubt it --- and I like the vibraphone in the first track. It's a bit repetitive but not necessarily in a bad way. The organ is kind of Doors-ish, not that I know too much of them really but that's what it puts me in mind of. I hope no tracks run together as I'm listening on YouTube, and won't be able to tell when one changes to another. Also my Wiki page does not give track times, which would be a way to separate what is essentially one long track here.
But at least "The world's on fire" has ended, and I do like the throaty organ in "Birds in my tree". Great melody, almost 70s in places, very uplifting and I like the chorus. Elements of the Fab Four in there? Aw. That was too short! Kind of a proggy/jazzy feeling to "Lose to live", reminds me of the Moodies a bit. Bit of a mad drum solo. Not mad about this one if I'm honest. Okay well that wasn't too long either, though I'm not so sad about that. Should I say "bummed"? It's psychedelia innit? Bummed? I'm not bummed? Do I need to add a "man"?
Seriously, "Strawberries mean love" is a nice gentle song with some great vocal harmonies and a good melody. Oh, and it's again too short. "Rainy day mushroom pillow" --- if ever a title exemplified everything I think about psych/hippies, this is it. Like the flute, decent song though the vocal is a little drony and boring to me. The harpischord, or whatever it is, is nice though, as is the organ. Hey! It IS a harpsichord! Nice!
The next track is nice too, but it's a little nondescript, though the interplay between guitar and organ is good. That takes us to "Hummin' happy", which is more uptempo and again recalls for me the Moody Blues. Also the Doors. And Windows. No, just kidding: this album doesn't crash my computer every time I --- DAMN!
Where was I before I had to reboot? Oh yeah. A harder, rockier song in "Pass time with the SAC", and one of my favourite instruments, the harmonica comes into play. Sweet. An instrumental, again too short, ands takes us into the title track. Yeah, I like this: it has just the right amount of weird in it to interest but not annoy me. The closer then is "Unwind with the clock", a sort of jazzy boogie that bumps along nicely on a sweet bassline and a great walking organ run. May be another instrumental? Is. Not. Singing came in very late indeed, and what's with this weird little bit at the end? Very pleasant though.
As everyone one knows, this is not the sort of music I tend to listen to, but after several months of listening to bands roar into battle, scream about gutting virgins and kicking the living **** out of each other (Wow! Christian Contemporary Rock Month is gonna be a doozy!)
it's nice to be able to kick back and just enjoy some, not quite bland but certainly happy music. This was not the limp, wimpy, hippy sort of thing I expected, and in general, yeah, I enjoyed it. Not gonna be at the top of any album lists I make, but a good album nonetheless.
Rating: 6/10