Friday, January 16, 2009

free-fall interrupted



Harvest SHVL 774.

One of my favourite albums ever - Rolling Stone's album of 1970 - and the perfect companion piece to the Beatles' own underrated masterpiece, "Abbey Road". Unfortunately, the critical acclaim it gathered never did convert into commercial sales, and as a result this LP has lingered in warehouse recycling bins or dusty store shelves for far too long. As I waxed (pontificated) in a much earlier piece:

"As smokey brown as the Beatles' "
Abbey Road" in places, but shimmering and translucent too as the best of Chilton & Bell's Big Star. A perfect pop masterpiece painted from a well rehearsed palette of limited colour, a perfect teenage summer's trip."

Phil May: vocals;
Victor Unitt: lead guitar; John Povey: keyboards, sitar, vocals; Wally Allen (aka Waller): bass, guitar, vocals; Skip Alan: drums.
Produced by Norman Smith.
Engineered by Tony Clark.


PRETTY THINGS: THE GOOD MR. SQUARE / SHE WAS TALL, SHE WAS HIGH from "Parachute" LP (Harvest EMI) 1970 (UK)

PURCHASE PARACHUTE

8 comments:

Jorn said...

invalid file error

ib said...

Is working now, Jorn: I reuploaded the file after tinkering with it to remove a portion of unwanted segueing near the end.

Mondo said...

I only got into Pretty Things late last year (I'm still working through the early stuff) - this is magic - those harmonies that lovely bass sound..almost Super Furries, Teenage Fanclub, or a song from some club scene in Get Carter

Anonymous said...

SICKLE CLOWNS

ib said...

Plasticsun:

funnily enough, I almost posted "Sickle Clowns" here. It was a bit of a 50/50 dilemma. Everytime I listen to it, it gets better and better.

ib said...

Panet Mondo:

The harmonies and roundness are a thing of beauty, for sure. So 1970, it almost hurts.

frankenslade said...

I love this album. Have you ever seen the video clip for "Cries from the Midnight Circus," or whatever that song is called (my brain is failing at the moment, sorry)? It's one of those clips with the band gathered in a loose circle, playing live on a soundstage. Awesome!

ib said...

"Cries from the Midnight Circus" is definitely a major song on it; sadly, I don't recall ever seeing the clip. I wonder where it was recorded ? "The Old Grey Whistle Test", maybe ? That ran on BBC2 from 1971, so could be...