söndag 9 september 2012

JACKPOTS/JACK IN THE BOX SLP-68 (-68) SWEDEN

 Can't find much about this band. Five guys from Gothenburg who did some touring in Europe and England and issued an LP before this one on Sonet - "Tic Tac Toe" - offering good regular peroid pop without being extraordinary. Since non of the albums sold sufficiently they later gave up the pop carreer and became a dance band. To my taste this their second is a pop/psych gem, comparable only to the best contemporary recordings of the genre and then up there with or better than most of them. Their mix of perfect high pitch vocals and psych is rather unique. They all sing like graduates from boys quires, with very tender yet strong voices, sometimes harmonies up to five layers. Song list consisting of covers and self-penned, all blending pure pop with psych. It's not violent in any way, more like multi-colored spun sugar flowing from the speakers. Most of its strength comes from the partly adventurous production. The group, Roger Wallis and Perry Ford are credited, but I'm certain studio engineer Michael B. Tretow was behind some of it. He was known for his experimenting back then and later famous as ABBA producer and creator of the "ABBA-sound". If You're in to rare pop psych and/or young men singing like angels, I can recommend it. To my ears all good, but if to choose favorites it'll be the ones picked below. Don't know if the album was released in any other country, but there was a US '45 issue with the whimsical title track having the original single mono mix, while the LP was issued in stereo only. Sadly the album didn't sell at all on release and is getting pretty hard to find. Not sure if or how it was re-issued I'm confident this is the very first with label as shown here, fully laminated cover and thick, unflexible vinyl. I know of one CD issue on Universal, but that is a mix of songs from both LP:s and omitting one of the best tracks from this - "Henbanes Sacrifice". (SCÄ*) (CCÖ*) 

                                                                                    
                                                                                
                                                                                   
                                                                                
                                                                                     






 




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