#287 Nirvana - The Story of Simon Simopath

Nope, not that Nirvana. The one making psycadelic, vaguely proggy music in the UK in 1967. I think I must have heard of these guys when I was reading about The Small Faces, and thought I'd check out their best-known album.

Its kind of a great one. The opening song is fraught with mystery and innocence, with pre-LO symphonic pop gestures, and when it breaks into a double-time catchball jam, you know something interesting is going on. Then the waltzy lurch and Zombies organs creep in on track 2 and you're off and running. There are some positively brilliant moments here, and the whole thing is a lot more fun than you might expect for something so complex and proggy. The obvious comparisons are psychedelic contemporaries like the aforementioned Zombies and The Small Faces, though this sounds much more polished, much more ahead of its time, and generally less hard-rocking. Decide where that leaves you, given your particular tastes. The other obvious point of comparison is Sgt Peppers, which came out the same year. There is a similar loose narrative feel, a similar blending of styles, a similar use of varied instrumentation and tempos, a similar mastery over melody and structure. It's not as good as the Beatles' classic, but on one listen, it comes close more often than you might guess. Can you tell me Pentecost Hotel would be altogether out of place on Sgt. Pepper's? That outro, with its dododoos is as joyous as it comes.

This feels like an album that, in another world, would have been a huge hit. There's an alternate universe where some of these songs are classics. It's whispy and wimpy and overproduced, so if you have no stomach for such things, take that under consideration. But if you like elaborate, inventive, joyous pop music that will keep you on your toes and crystallize once a song or so, do go find this one and give it a listen.

Have I gone soft? All these high scores. Then again, I'm specifically seeking out all these alleged classics. Plus, I really like good 60's rock, and I'm finding I've missed a bunch of good albums that don't quite make the classic rock radio. Chalk up another gold, boys 4.5/5