Group founded 1966 in Washington D.C. as "The English Setters". For starters playing psychedelic rock, but after being spotted by producer Ron Heffkine and then getting a deal with Heritage Records forced into a bubblegum pop outfit by the label. Apparently most cuts on this one-off LP used studio musicians instead of band members after which excessive orchestral arrangements were added, making them come out totally different from their much rawer live sound. As it seems the members didn't like the result at all, made some unsuccessful efforts to be released from the Heritage contract and later started to play hard rock before dissolving 1975. Not the first or last time a label luring a band or an artist into drags they were uncomfortable with and then just getting a minor selling mismatch. Yet to my taste this has its moments and not bad listening at all. Melodic and quite catchy at parts...let be the backing mostly sounds like contemporary orchestrated Brit-pop, but there's also quite advanced arrangements and some psych inputs lifting it beyond regular. All very well produced and arranged though with a kind of odd flavour, probably sprung from the discrepancy between what they were and how they appear. It wont be my most played, but still interesting enough for keeps. 1968 issues also in US and Canada on Heritage (HTS 35000), US mono (HT 35000). 1970 Italian on Heritage (SMR 2019). US 1994 CD on Collectables label (COL-CD-0549) came with one bonus track. First German had label as shown here and fully laminated cover. (GÖXÄ*)
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