Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera [Extra tracks, Import]

This is an album that will apeal to lovers of 60s pop/rock,particularly those of a psych persuasion,here are some of the highlights:the album opens with the 60 second "intro" which melts into "Mother Writes"which is a lively piece of fuzzed up 60s pop,"Mary jane"is a wonderful piece of uk pop/psych with its piano and fuzzy guitar in the background with a mellow floaty chorus of Mary Jane,"Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey"is a rather rough sounding instrumental with booming bass and fuzzy guitar to the fore,but slightly ruined by it's middle section,"Air"is a piece of raga rock with the lovely sitar accompanied by a bass line,rather languid and great for sitting on you paisley patterned bean bag,"Flames"was the single taken from this album(the sigle version is included as a bonus)it's a real lively piece of 60s pop/rock,with a catchy chorus,this also features some wigged out guitar playing,"Whats The Point In Leaving"is a class piece of UK pop/psych with the mellotron lovingly taking control of proceedings,very Beatlesque actually,"Long Nights Of Summer"is just beautiful again awash with floaty mellotron,and a rather cstchy guitar line,one of the best tracks on the album,"Dream Starts"is a strange number with its backward taped effects beginning and heavily treated vocals,a weird piece of UK psych,"Reactions Of A Young Man"is another tasty treat with rather tasty accoustic guitar lines and again the track is awash with mellotron,and very effective vocal parts that are laced with yummy sitar,a lovely piece of pop/psych,"Now Shes Gone"ends the actual album,the mellotron once again takes precedent over proceedings with a touch of flanging effect thrown into the mix,i must add that the vocals are spotless throughout this album!On the Repertoire cd you get 6 bonus tracks,the picks are "Salisbury Plain,Dreamy which is a yummy and rather quiet piece of acid pop with nice vocals and accoustic guitar and "A Quick B"is a raunchy piece of guitar driven blues type rock.
The repertoire cd issue is worth getting as to my ears the quality is spotless,a real under rated little gem of an album.

Wow, what an album. This is another (almost) lost sixties treasure. What is most resonant is the amount of variety on the album, and yet it still all works as a complete whole. You get the opening Hendrix influenced 'Intro/ Mother Wtites', the catchy pop psyche of 'Mary Jane', jazz-blues with a humouros cover of 'I was Cool', a superb instrumental in 'Walter Sly', hippy rock with 'Air' and mod with the motown sounding 'Looking For A Happy Life'.

Next up is the albums highlight 'Flames', which has to be one of the decades best singles. Featuring an incredible bubbling bass line, crunchy guitars and awesome lead (and harmony) vocals, this track is worth the price of admission alone.
Things cool down with the next track, the Beatles influenced and mellotron drenched ' What's The Point of Leaving'. There's more mllotron and lovely minor chords on 'Long Nights Of Summer' before the three psychedelic tracks that closed the original album. Featuring many of the era's sonic tricks (phased instrumentation, backwards tapes, distorted vocals, tempo changes) the original album ends just as strongly as it started.

In addition this CD features all the bands' mono singles from the time ('Mary Jane' is especially different from the album version), so this set is definitely good value for money. This album would be reccomended to fans of mid-late sixties psychedelic/ beat music, and would probably appeal to fans of early progressive rock too. Enjoy!!!

Elmer Gantry's velvet opera is one of the iconic records from the flower power era. A truly great record that has to be listened to.