Stereograph titled "Woodlake" by James T. Hendrick, c. 1885
The intersection of late-'60s bubblegum pop and psychedelic music is a tricky one - a lot of pop bands gave the "psych" thing a try and it didn't really work. For every success like Odessey and Oracle, Head, or Smiley Smile, there's a greater number of failures and botched experiments. I don't know why I thought Progressions by the Texas band the Five Americans might be a good bet - the band straddled the line between legit band and pop throwaways from the start. They wrote their own material and toured with some of the best bands of the time, but their two big hits, "I See the Light" and "Western Union", were pretty lightweight.
These two sides of the Five Americans' music dominate their third album, Progressions, as well, with the additional factor of shoehorning some psych-pop style to their sound. It doesn't all come together in a very cohesive way, but the variety and strong songwriting make it a fun listen anyway. "Zip Code" is straight-up bubblegum pop, with some great harmonies and handclaps, but it's hard not to hear the Five Americans straining to recapture the magic of "Western Union". "Stop-Light" and "Rain Maker" do a better job of showing the band's better pop instincts, coming across as a mix of the Association and the Kinks, and a couple more "serious" rock songs (""Black Is White-Day Is Night" and "Come On Up") show the band flexing their musicianship muscles a little.
The album's most successful psych-pop composition is easily "Evol-Not Love" (unfortunately only included in mono where the rest of the album was given a roomier stereo mix). With a martial drumbeat and Byrds-y guitar jangle, it has some of the best vocal harmonies on Progressions. The only really "psych" elements involved are the keening organ and the heavy reverb on the vocals, but it's enough to give the track a floaty vibe that mixes with the bubblegum-pop melody just right. It's the kind of thing I look for in an album like Progressions - it's too bad that there aren't more songs like "Evol-Not Love" to be found here.
"Evol-Not Love" by the Five Americans
2 comments:
Thanks for this. The song alone is a great find I think. I love that particular strain of Sunshine Pop where psychedelia is just creeping in, you pick up on a kind of sadness or horror which inherently, as a sound, could've only existed very briefly before the forms fractured into all new genres. Have you heard Tommy Roe's 'Phantasy'? Mucher lighter, but genuinely quite a touching album.
I haven't heard Phantasy, but I've been curious about Tommy Roe - it took me a while to separate him in my mind from Tommy James. Thanks for the recommendation!
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