Fotomaker - Transfer Station 1979 (Flac & mp3)

Sometimes referred to as power pop's first supergroup, Fotomaker was founded by former Rascals members Gene Cornish (bass) and Dino Danelli (drums), who had played together in a previous post-Rascals band called Bulldog. The two contacted ex-Raspberries guitarist Wally Bryson, then playing in his native Cleveland with a band called Tattoo. Bryson agreed to join them in Long Island, and the Fotomaker lineup was subsequently completed with guitarist Lex Marchesi and keyboardist Frankie Vinci (lead vocal duties were split between several members).

The group quickly landed a deal with Atlantic and released their self-titled debut in 1978, which produced the chart single "Where Have You Been All My Life." Before the year was out, they'd released another LP, this one titled Vis-a-Vis; it featured another minor hit in "Miles Away." Still, Fotomaker was never quite able to break out beyond the power pop cult, and Bryson left the group to return to Cleveland in mid-1979. Vinci assumed lead vocal duties for the final Fotomaker album, 1979's Transfer Station, but faced with diminishing returns, the group elected to call it a day.

This is also a contribution from Javier, a friend of the blog. Thanks for that Javier! I will post tomorrow the Rascals anthology where Cornish and Danelli had played in their past.
Okay enjoy Fotomaker,
cheers
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1980 Power Pop: Sorrows - Bad Times Good Times 1980 (2010 Bomp) Flac & mp3

Biography

A tough but tuneful new wave pop band from New York City, Sorrows (no "the," please) were formed by guitarist and singer Arthur Alexander in 1977 a few months after the breakup of his influential power pop combo the Poppees. With tongue slightly in cheek, Alexander described his vision for Sorrows as "ABBA meets the Sex Pistols," and he recruited his former Poppees bandmate Jett Harris to play drums in the new group, along with guitarist Joey Cola and bassist Ricky Street. Sorrows soon made a name for themselves on the New York club scene, regularly playing CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, and other hip night spots, and in 1979, the band landed a record deal with Pavilion Records, a division of CBS. But while their debut album, 1980's Teenage Heartbreak, earned enthusiastic reviews and became a cult favorite among pop obsessives, the label's promotion was minimal and the record sold poorly. For their second album, 1981's Love Too Late, Sorrows were paired up with legendary producer Shel Talmy, who in the mid-'60s had worked with the Who, the Kinks, the Creation, and the Easybeats; unfortunately, the idea of working with Talmy was better than the results, and the album didn't fare as well with critics and sold no better than they debut. Sorrows broke up in the mid-'80s and the albums fell out of print, never appearing on CD as they became the stuff of legend among fans of '80s pop. In 2010, Bomp! Records released Bad Times Good Times, a collection of demos and alternate versions of material from Sorrows' debut album; Alexander also announced that Sorrows were playing a handful of reunion shows to support the new album's release, with the possibility of new recordings in the offing.

 The Album:
 After the breakup of Beatles-obsessed power poppers the Poppees, guitarist Arthur Alexander and drummer Jett Harris formed a new band, Sorrows, and while their earlier group struggled to get noticed after releasing a pair of singles for Bomp Records, Sorrows quickly caught the ear of an A&R man at Pavilion Records, an affiliate of CBS Records. Sorrows' debut album, Teenage Heartbreak, arrived in 1980. Unfortunately, the record and its follow-up, 1981's Love Too Late, sank without a trace, thanks to poor promotion by CBS, and while they earned a small cult following among obsessive fans of skinny-tie pop, Sorrows' music has been out of print for decades, making it all but impossible for pop mavens to rediscover them. Bad Times Good Times finally gives Sorrows the second chance they've long deserved; while the liner notes are coy about the source of this material, this appears to be a remixed and reworked version of Teenage Heartbreak, featuring the same 12 songs (with the album's original producer, Mark Milchman, credited with recording) as well as two unreleased demos and a pair of live recordings.

While Alexander's fascination with the Beatles had hardly worn off when he formed Sorrows, the new band boasted the sort of energy and attitude that gave their Merseybeat-influenced melodies a lot more life, and Harris, guitarist/singer Joey Cola, and bassist Ricky Street made for a much tighter and more imaginative band than the Poppees. Alexander and Harris wrote the bulk of the material on Bad Times Good Times, and they'd grown by leaps and bounds as tunesmiths since the Poppees breakup, and while that band's best songs recalled the Fab Four's middling efforts, Sorrows crafted tunes that tipped their hats to rock & roll's past while sounding fresh, lively, and original, and why "Lonely Girl," "Teenage Heartbreak," "I Want You Tonight," or "Bad Times, Good Times" didn't become hit singles can only be attributed to someone at CBS being very much asleep at the switch. The two demos confirm Sorrows had more good tunes left in them -- the rockabilly-flavored "That's Your Problem" and the arty, slightly psychedelic "Silver Cloud" should have made the cut on Love Too Late -- and the live covers of Rolling Stones and Carole King numbers confirm this band burned bright on-stage.

For folks who've been wondering when Sorrows' Teenage Heartbreak would ever arrive on CD, Bad Times Good Times isn't the next best thing, it's an actual improvement over the already fine original, and rescues one of the better pop bands of the '80s from oblivion; folks who like their rhythms peppy, their guitars ringing, and their harmonies tight will find lots to love on this collection.

Wonderful Power Pop from the early eighties.
Hope you will enjoy
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Squire - Something Old Something New Something Borrowed... The Official Squire Fan Club Album (1980) 2010 Flac

An incredibly hard to find relic of the mod revival years, Something Old Something New Something Borrowed... is a 13-track roundup of rarities that peaks, on side two, with a fiery live sequence that reminds listeners just how ill-suited many of these bands were to the studio environment -- and just how readily Squire bucked that trend. Their natural habitat remained the sweat- and beer-soaked atmosphere of a tiny club packed with parkas and Union Jacks, and the seven live songs here are delivered with a frenzy that can readily be compared to a maniacal cross between vintage Jam and classic Kinks. But the studio held no fears and, if you can image the first Beatles album slammed through the sound of classic Flamin' Groovies, with all the wide-eyed enthusiasm and tunefulness that that implies, you'll be close to capturing the sheer joy of Squire.

Alternate versions of band favorites "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" (no relation to the Ramones number), "Teenage Girl," "Get Ready to Go," and "The Face of Youth Today" all highlight side one, while the concert sequence hits so many peaks that it's difficult to play favorites -- 19 minutes of nonstop mod mayhem whose only drawback (shared with the studio side) is its somewhat weedy sound quality. Crank up the volume and beat on the bass, however, and all of Squire's greatest qualities still come bleeding through. And you'll be "Walking Down the King's Road" in no time!(allmusic.com)

This is the Japan release from Vivid Sound 2010 with 21 songs. Great Mod Power Pop from the fantastic Squire.
Enjoy it!
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(Power) Pop: Chris Stamey - Travels In The South (2004) Flac & mp3

From his tenures with the Sneakers and the dB's on through to his subsequent solo projects, singer/songwriter Chris Stamey remained a linchpin of the jangle pop renaissance. Born December 6, 1954 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he was raised in the Winston-Salem area, and alongside longtime friend and collaborator Peter Holsapple, he first surfaced in 1972 in the short-lived Rittenhouse Square, which issued its sole LP the following year. While attending the University of North Carolina in 1975, Stamey teamed with drummer Will Rigby to form the cult favorite power pop combo Sneakers; the group was later joined by guitarist Mitch Easter, the future Let's Active frontman who would go on to emerge as one of the era's premier producers. The group traveled to New York City in 1976 to appear at the famed Max's Kansas City but dissolved soon after, at which time Stamey returned to the Big Apple to set up his own label, Car Records.

In addition to issuing the posthumous Sneakers collection In the Red in 1978, Car also issued the magnificent "I Am the Cosmos," the lone solo single of ex-Big Star mastermind Chris Bell; concurrently, Stamey played live with Bell's onetime Big Star partner Alex Chilton, and in 1977 issued a solo single, "The Summer Sun." When Rigby and bassist Gene Holder relocated to New York, Stamey joined them as the dB's, releasing the 1978 single "If and When" before expanding to a four-piece with the addition of Holsapple. Although the dB's quirky yet melodic approach anticipated the emergence of the southern jangle pop explosion, the band never earned the same attention afforded to acts like R.E.M. -- initially, they couldn't even land an American record deal, and their first two albums (the much-acclaimed 1981 efforts Stands for Decibels and Repercussion) appeared only in Britain.

Stamey left the dB's in 1983, issuing the solo LP It's a Wonderful Life later that same year; after issuing 1984's Instant Excitement EP, he recorded and toured with the Golden Palominos, squeezing in the Christmas Time mini-album in 1986. A year later, Stamey signed with A&M to make his long-awaited major-label debut with the superb It's Alright; despite uniformly solid reviews, the album made almost no commercial impact, and he spent the next several years as a producer and guest musician, completing an album which A&M reportedly rejected. The LP finally appeared on Rhino in 1991 under the title Fireworks; that same year, he reunited with Holsapple for Mavericks. For 1995's The Robust Beauty of Improper Models in Decision Making, Stamey made a radical shift away from his pop past, teaming with cornetist/guitarist Kirk Ross for an exercise in free improvisation. Stamey spent the remainder of the decade focusing on producing records for other artists at his Modern studio in Chapel Hill, but returned to his own recording career with 2004's Travels in the South. Less than a year later, Stamey had another new album ready for release, a collaboration with Yo La Tengo and Tyson Rogers credited to the Chris Stamey Experience and titled A Question of Temperature (2005).

A few years after A Question of Temperature, Stamey reunited with Peter Holsapple, releasing Here and Now in 2009 and supporting it with a tour.

Stamey then turned his attention to an ambitious live staging of Big Star's third album Sister Lovers, acting as the musical director for the star-studded concerts. The first of these debuted at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina in December of 2010 and over the next few years, Stamey brought Big Star's Third to London and to 2012's South by Southwest festival. That year also saw the reunion of the dB's, who played live and released the new album Falling Off the Sky that summer. Stamey continued with his busy workload in early 2013 with the release of the dreamy solo album Lovesick Blues. Two years later, he released Euphoria, an album which touched upon many of his pop obsessions. (allmusic.com)

The 2004 album by Chris Stamey is for sure not the common Power Pop album. It was his first real pop album since a few years. It sounds thougtful and i don't mean the lyrics. It's the music. What's attract my attention is the mood and the vibe of the songs through the whole album. Best songs so far There's A Love, Alive, Ride, In Spanish Harlem, but the whole album is a goodie. It's a quiet album in a very good way.
Love it or hate it
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We The People - Mirror Of Our Minds (1998 Sundazed) Flac

One of the most versatile mid-'60s garage groups -- indeed, they were for the most part too accomplished and pop-savvy to truly merit the garage band tag -- We the People had some big hits in Florida, but never broke out nationally, despite releases on the large RCA and Challenge labels. Veterans of Orlando garage combos the Trademarks, the Offbeets, and the Nonchalants all found their way into We the People, who made their first single for the local Hotline label, "My Brother the Man," in early 1966. "My Brother the Man" was a smoking, almost-crazed, hard garage-punk number, a path the band continued to follow on their early Challenge singles "Mirror of Your Mind" and "You Burn Me Up and Down."

Grinding guitar chords, organ, aggressive vocals, and crazed guitar distortion (particularly on the swooping noises and feedback that introduce "You Burn Me Up and Down") were their initial trademarks. Yet at the same time they could throw in gentler and more lyrically and melodically subtle originals, like the beautiful, tremolo-laden ballad "(You Are) the Color of Love," on the B-side of "Mirror of Your Mind." Unusual for a garage band, they boasted two prolific and talented songwriters in Tommy Talton and Wayne Proctor. Proctor was the more interesting of the pair, penning one of the great raga rock tunes (the gutsy "In the Past," covered by the Chocolate Watch Band), the Baroque-psychedelic "St. John's Shop," and "(You Are) the Color of Love." All had uncommonly elusive, vague, but evocative lyrics for a young regional band of the time; Proctor even wrote a love song to a nun ("Love Wears Black (None)"), although that wasn't issued until more than 30 years later.

We the People had a good share of chart success in Florida, but suffered a major setback when Proctor left the band in early 1967. The music recorded subsequent to his departure had its moments: the nasty "When I Arrive" made its way onto a Pebbles compilation, and "The Day She Dies," although written by Talton, recalled Proctor's work with its harmonic pop, melodic base and odd lyrical slant.

Some of the last numbers they cut in the studio were derivative soul-rock tunes, though, and Talton's departure at the end of the '60s, as well as the expiration of their recording deal, sealed the death of the group, although they continued for a bit longer. As part of the Southern rock group Cowboy, Talton was the only We the People member with a visible music career after the '60s.(allmusic.com)

Wonderful band from the mid to late sixties. The band developed from a garage punk band of the earlier days to a very good psychedelic pop band. This 40 track edition by Sundazed is a very well package to present a band who had more success deserved.Give it a try if you don't know the band.

Have fun
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. The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee...Pretty Ballerina (Sundazed 2011)Flac & mp3

Based in New York, the Left Banke pioneered "baroque & roll" in the '60s with a mix of pop/rock and grand, quasi-classical arrangements and melodies. Featuring teenage prodigy Michael Brown as keyboardist and chief songwriter, the group scored two quick hits with "Walk Away Renee" (number five) and "Pretty Ballerina" (number 15). Chamber-like string arrangements, the soaring, near-falsetto lead vocals of Steve Martin (aka Steve Martin Caro), and tight harmonies that borrowed from British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Zombies were also key elements of the Left Banke sound. Though their two hits are their only well-remembered efforts, their debut album (Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina) was a strong, near-classic work that matched the quality of their hit singles in songwriting and production.

Unfortunately, the Left Banke's internal dynamic wasn't nearly as harmonious as their sound, and their history goes some way toward explaining their short career. Initially, the group made some recordings that were produced by Brown's father, Harry Lookofsky. When these recordings failed to interest companies in signing the band, the Left Banke broke up, Brown moving to California with the group's original drummer. A backing track for "Walk Away Renee" had already been completed, and the other members overdubbed vocals in Brown's absence. The song was released on Smash and became a hit, and the musicians reunited to tour and continue recording.
Despite popular success, the group, which showed such tremendous promise, was quickly torn asunder by dissension. Due to the nature of their music (which often employed session musicians), the Left Banke's sound was difficult to reproduce on the road, and one could sympathize with Brown's wishes to become a Brian Wilson-like figure, concentrating on writing and recording while the rest of the musicians took to the road.

A variety of guitarists, as both session musicians and ostensible group members, flitted in and out of the lineup; Rick Brand, credited as the guitarist on the first LP, actually plays on only one of the album's songs. Adding fuel to the fire, Brown's bandmates wanted to oust Brown's father as the act's manager. In early 1967, Brown went as far as to record a Left Banke single without them, using vocalist Bert Sommer.

That single ("And Suddenly") flopped, and for a brief time in September 1967 the original members were recording together again. After just one single ("Desiree"), though, Brown left for good. Most of the group's second and final album, The Left Banke Too, was recorded without him. While it still sported baroque arrangements and contained some fine moments, Brown's presence was sorely missed, and the record pales in comparison to their debut. Brown went on to form a Left Banke-styled group, Montage, which released a fine and underappreciated album in the late '60s. He later teamed up to form Stories with vocalist Ian Lloyd.

There were some confusing son-of-Left Banke recordings over the next few years, although the band really came to a halt in 1969, after the second album. Brown, Martin, and unknown musicians made a few recordings in late 1969; then, oddly, the original group re-formed for a fine early-1971 single on Buddah ("Love Songs in the Night" b/w "Two by Two"), although the record itself was credited to Steve Martin. And the original group, minus its key visionary Michael Brown, made an album's worth of ill-advised reunion recordings in 1978, which surfaced under the title Strangers on a Train.

The Left Banke's cult following slowly but steadily grew over the passage of time, especially after the release of 1992's There's Gonna Be a Storm, which collected the group's entire Smash Records catalog on one CD. And the Left Banke's songs were covered by everyone from Rickie Lee Jones, Susanna Hoffs & Matthew Sweet, and Richard Thompson to Alice Cooper. In 2010, two of the original members of the group, Tom Finn and George Cameron, staged a pair of Left Banke reunion shows at Joe's Pub in New York City; joining them were vocalist Mike Fornatale, guitarist Paul Alves, bassist Charly Cazalet, drummer Rick Reil, and keyboardists Mickey Finn and Joe McGinty. The Joe's Pub shows were a critical and popular success, and the new edition of the Left Banke gigged periodically over the next few years, with McGinty replaced by John Spurney in 2012.

In 2011, Sundazed Records reissued Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina and The Left Banke Too on vinyl and CD, allowing the two albums to be heard in their original sequence since they fell out of print in the '60s. In April 2013, Michael Brown joined the new Left Banke on-stage in New York City to perform "Pretty Ballerina," and it was announced that Steve Martin had signed on to return as the group's lead vocalist on March 18, 2015. Martin's return was sadly overshadowed by the announcement the following day that Michael Brown died of heart failure at his home in Englewood, New Jersey; he was 65 years old.(allmusic.com)

Classic album of Baroque/Psychedelic Pop by The Left Banke. Hope you will enjoy it.
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The Association - Renaissance (1967) (2011 Cherry Red Deluxe Expanded Mono Edition) Flac & mp3

Renaissance was a difficult album for the Association to record. Coming in the wake of a serious hit album (And Then...Along Comes the Association) and two huge hit singles ("Along Comes Mary," "Cherish") and at a time when the group was experiencing more bookings than its members had ever dreamed possible, Renaissance was rushed out under pressure from the band's label. Alas, Renaissance bore little resemblance to its predecessor.

For starters, the Association had lost the services of producer Curt Boettcher, who was the architect of the earlier album's extraordinary sound. Additionally, Renaissance was comprised entirely of original material, much of which had been written while the group was touring. These songs were competent and showed some flashes of inspiration but, apart from "Come to Me," nothing here offered anything even remotely as catchy as either of the band's two previous singles. With Association rhythm guitarist Jim Yester's brother Jerry Yester producing, Renaissance has a more stripped-down, conventional folk-rock feel.

Apart from lead guitarist Gary Alexander and wind player Terry Kirkman, none of the other members played on this album, but Alexander is a delight, mixing melodic folk-rock picking and strumming, throwing in a few high-energy licks on one or two numbers, and even using a koto for the album's single, "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies." The latter, despite having a grotesque title when following up a single like "Cherish," is a prize piece of pop psychedelia, all gorgeous harmonies and spaced-out sensibilities backed by a bracing beat. Renaissance wasn't a bad album, but was a more routine, predictable recording than its predecessor and, without a hit single to help push sales, it never reached audiences in remotely the same numbers. (allmusic.com)

In my ears also a good effort by the Association with a lot of strong songs and in no way disappointing. Great vocal arrangements and also the different instruments was well deployed.
I hope you enjoy it like me
Cheers
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mp3 links added! Nick Gilder - City Nights & Frequency (2006)

Hello Folks and Friends, as i yesterday mentioned, i have added the mp3 link to the flac post of yesterday.
Cheers
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Glam/Power Pop: Nick Gilder - Hot Child In The City (The Best Of Nick Gilder) (2001) Flac & mp3

"Hot Child in the City" is a great single: a song about Hollywood hookers that encapsulates everything cool about late-'70s summer nights. But even better is "Roxy Roller," a groupie ode Gilder recorded with his former band, Sweeney Todd, named after the infamous Fleet Street barber. In fact, "Got to Get Out," "Runaways in the Night," and "Tantalize" (also a Sweeney Todd number) are stone-cold classics. Featuring killer Gilder tracks that have never been reissued, The Best of Nick Gilder is a composite of Gilder's three '70s solo releases:

You Know Who You Are, City Nights, and Frequency. Each is an excellent platter and Nights features production from glam-master Mike Chapman in the midst of conquering America (he also had number ones with Blondie and Exile during 1978). Chapman then worked on Pat Benatar's debut, In the Heat of the Night, which featured Gilder's "Rated X," a consummate carnal confection that Gilder serves up even better on this disc. Gilder compresses a bubblegum blast comparable to T. Rex or Cheap Trick
. At least now there's a CD to prove it. (allmusic.com)

Top notch Glam/Power Pop musician is one of the best of his guild. And an underrated artist by the audience. Maybe it was the wrong time and he was ten years late, who knows. For sure he had written a lot of fine pop songs for the genre.
Enjoy
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The Flac link expire 2017-04-23

Thanks to Javier for his contribution!

Glam/Power Pop: Nick Gilder - City Nights /Frequency 2006 (Flac)

Two albums on one disc from Nick Gilder of Sweeney Todd fame. I posted City Nights some weeks ago in mp3. Now Javier contributed this fine albums in Flac here to the blog. I will post tomorrow the Frequency album in mp3, too. Hope you will like it and thanks again to Javier.

Enjoy it
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Jan & Dean - Carnival Of Sound (1966 - 1968) 2010 Rhino (Flac)

Liner Notes By Rhino
Jan Berry and Dean Torrence rode a wave of popularity in the early ’60s that earned the So-Cal duo more than a dozen Top 40 hits, including the #1 smash “Surf City.” The group’s good fortune came to a tragic halt in 1966 when Berry suffered debilitating injuries in a car accident near Dead Man’s Curve, a treacherous road that, ironically, was the subject of one of the group’s earlier hits. As he battled tirelessly to recover, Berry spent the next three years recording songs for a new Jan and Dean album to be titled Carnival of Sound. Despite the quality of the music, the album was never released and became one of rock ’n’ roll’s lost treasures, until now. Rhino Handmade offers two versions of CARNIVAL OF SOUND. The first is a single CD whose 29 songs include mono and stereo mixes of the album along with bonus tracks from the 1966-68 sessions. The other is a deluxe edition that combines the aforementioned CD with a vinyl version of the album in mono presented in a gorgeous hardbound gatefold jacket. To present a clear and vivid picture of what Berry was up to during this transitional phase, the collection’s producer Andrew Sandoval spent three years carefully reviewing and compiling every tape Berry submitted to Warner Bros. for use on CARNIVAL OF SOUND. “Although Jan cut multiple LP-length acetates of his work at the time, he left behind no definitive track list or sequence for the songs to be included on the album,” he explains in the liner notes. “I created the sequence you hear … by grouping his post-accident tracks together and closing with his pre-accident masters. The two parts of this story have such different flavors that they seem to flow best in this manner.” CARNIVAL OF SOUND opens with “Girl, You’re Blowing My Mind,” an upbeat poppy track that kicks off with a guitar that sounds like a jet engine. It then moves into songs that expand Jan and Dean’s signature sound, including the sitar-infused “Mulholland,” the wild imagery of “Laurel And Hardy,” the poignant ballad “I Know My Mind” and the Indian instrumentation of the title track. To round out the album, a selection of oldies was brought in from sessions Berry cut prior to his accident.

Maurice Williams & The Zodiac’s “Stay” was given a quick, 1:35 run-through. The Five Satins’ “In The Still Of The Night” displayed Berry’s new friendship with The Monkees’ Davy Jones, who gave the song some true bubblegum sincerity with a spoken interlude. Berry added horns and woodwinds to his ’66 tracking session for Rusty and Doug Kershaw’s 1961 swamp pop hit “Louisiana Man.” Among the collection’s bonus tracks are “Don’t Drop It” and a demo for “Laurel And Hardy,” plus two versions of “Girl, You’re Blowing My Mind,” Berry’s final mix and another with an alternate backing track. The CD contains Berry’s original mono mixes along with new stereo mixes that Sandoval says are meant to be more illustrative of Jan’s work, rather than a definitive statement. “On careful inspection, Jan’s mono mixes can’t be beat, but the new stereo versions afford the listener a bigger window into his production prowess,” Sandoval says. “Listen out for such anomalies as the longer coda on ‘Mulholland,’ or the vocal verse that later became a guitar solo on ‘Girl, You’re Blowing My Mind.’” More than four decades after Berry found solace in these sounds, they arrive for everyone to share as the Carnival finally comes to town. (End)


It's difficult to know how to assess this album. On the one hand, it's enjoyable listening, and it's an essential archival release -- if not as well-known as Brian Wilson's Smile, Carnival of Sound is just as tantalizing a "lost" artifact of the psychedelic '60s, buried these 40-plus years. And those factors alone make owning it a no-brainer for fans of Jan & Dean, surf music, or psychedelic music (and it embraces both). But unlike SMiLE, which was well within Brian Wilson's grasp, at least when he started it, it's clear that Carnival of Sound was pushing the envelope of what Jan Berry was capable of doing in 1967-1968; listening to it is akin to watching someone run a marathon with a partly injured foot -- they might succeed and possibly even do it well, but there's also the dread of doing untold harm to themselves in the process. Some of the material here actually pre-dates Berry's April 12, 1966 car crash; in March of that year, he had recorded a small group of covers, including "Stay" and "Yakety Yak," for a planned new album that was to carry the duo's work into wholly new territory. Then came the car wreck, and months and years of recovery.

What is here is mostly fun, and beautifully accomplished, with superb playing and excellent singing; and the production is, at times, stunning, and also far more self-consciously ambitious than prior Jan & Dean releases -- Jan & Dean had always managed to quietly impress listeners by slipping these beautifully produced jewels past them as pop music, but on Carnival of Sound, they were very obviously calling more attention to the layers of sound swirling and shifting below the surface of material such as "Girl, You're Blowing My Mind," "Fan Tan," "Hawaii," and even "Tijuana" (a marijuana-laced re-casting of "Little Old Lady from Pasadena"). Listening is a little more work than on their earlier records, but the effort is worth it -- the sitars work for them, and the Laurel & Hardy vignette is goofy fun; but whether the public would have accepted an album that juxtaposed those numbers with the anti-Vietnam War ode "Only a Boy" is questionable. And how well it all holds together is still not clear -- it seems incomplete, as though there are dots that still needed to be connected, for the makers as well as the listener. The CD comes appended with stereo mixes, plus surviving demos, which add to the level of goofiness in the overall picture of the production. And there are liner notes that put to shame almost any archival pop/rock release seen to date, in both their detail and underlying sense of wonder about the music. (allmusic.com)

Incomplete or not it's definitely Jan & Dean's best effort.
Have fun
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The Majority - The Decca Years 1965-68 (Rev-Ola 2009) Flac & mp3

The Majority might be best remembered, or indeed primarily known, for recording a couple of songs penned by writers from much bigger groups that didn't release their own versions. Of the many British Invasion-era bands that never had a hit, however, the Majority had more staying power than most, releasing eight singles on Decca between 1965 and 1968. They never quite found a consistent stylistic direction or great material, however, before changing their name to Majority One in the late '60s.

Formed in Hull, England, as the Mustangs in the early '60s, they changed their name to the Majority around the time they moved to London in 1965. With more of an American pop/rock vocal harmony style than most British Invasion groups, they tried their hand at a variety of material over the next few years, most of it coming from outside songwriters. As a minor coup of sorts, for their second single, 1965's "A Little Bit of Sunlight," they managed to gain access to a Ray Davies composition that never found a place on a 1960s Kinks record (though a 1965 demo Davies cut with session men eventually found release). They also covered another Davies song, the Kinks' "Ring the Bells," on the B-side of their next single, though to be honest the Majority versions of both songs were not in the same league as the Davies-sung ones.

In search of chart material, the Majority also tried compositions written or co-written by such luminaries as John Carter, Twice as Much, and Chip Taylor. But they never hit a commercial or artistic gold mine, the production varying from the lush to straightforward mod-ish rock. One such effort in the latter vein, "One Third" (which like several of their better recordings faintly recalled the Zombies), did find a bigger audience decades later when it was included on the Nuggets, Vol. 2 box set of overlooked '60s British Invasion/early psychedelic-like rock from non-U.S. countries. Lead singer Barry Graham wrote "One Third," but his contributions to the group's recorded repertoire were limited to a couple B-sides.

The Majority's eighth and final single, "All Our Christmases," would generate another collectible for future British '60s rock aficionados to hunt down in subsequent decades, as it was written but not recorded by the Bee Gees. After some major lineup shuffles and work backing singer Barry Ryan in concert and in the studio, the Majority relocated to France, where they renamed themselves Majority One in 1969 and continued their recording career with a similar but more sophisticated musical approach. All of the tracks from the Majority's singles except one are on the CD compilation The Decca Years 1965-68.

Very good psychedelic pop band  who was completely underrated.
Enjoy
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