In an endeavour to be taken as a 'serious' albums band Mr. Fantasy's UK release did not include any of the three Top 10 singles. The US release Heaven is in Your Mind fixed this, but take care when purchasing as mono and stereo CD versions exist. In and out guitarist Dave Mason shines, with Steve Winwood on vocals/organ a rising star.
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Incense and Peppermints The Strawberry Alarm Clock 1967 [Uni]
With a classic swirling psych organ and some trippy bubblegum vocals the title track was a smash #1 hit. In their search for artistic credibility it was probably also their doom, destined to be thought of as a lightweight pop outfit. Time has been kind to the album however, and another listen shows these guys had plenty going for them.
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Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd The Monkees 1967 [Colgems/RCA]
The pre-fab four tossed in a couple of psychedelic gems on this record that saw the band gaining an increasing amount of creative control over their music. Originally put together for the popular TV series, the band was often unfairly criticised for the amount of session musicians used on their records. For genuine psych madness try 1968's Head.
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H P Lovecraft H P Lovecraft 1967 [Philips]
Topnotch outfit from Chicago named for the famous horror writer, the sound on this album inspired by Lovecraft's "macabre tales and poems of Earth populated by another race". Best known for the George Edwards/Dave Michaels lead vocal pairing, the band's debut is classic period psych tinted with some ear-pleasing folk and jazz.
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Begin The Millennium 1968 [Columbia]
Producers Curt Boettcher and Gary Usher whipped up this group out of the remains of Sagittarius and somehow convinced Columbia to invest heavily in recording an album. The production shows, with some tight psych-pop nuggets interspersed with the odd bit of spacier stuff. A total flop commercially, more than a few in the industry noticed.
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Picturesque Matchstickable Messages The Status Quo 1968 [Pye]
Before they became one of the UK's top 70s boogie bands Status Quo was a fairly run-of-the-mill pop-psych outfit. The classic 'Pictures of Matchstick Men' (US #12) and the bright-eyed 'Ice in the Sun' both broke into the UK Top 10, but the album itself failed to chart. After abandoning psychedelia, by 1973 their ship had well and truly come in.
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Would You Believe Billy Nicholls 1968 [Immediate]
Producer Andrew Oldham took his cue from Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds for this nifty piece of UK orchestral pop-psych. Nicholls pens all the songs except for the title-track and, while not the masterpiece many remember, it is a superb example of the easygoing kind of bubbly pop of its era.
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An Apple a Day Apple 1969 [Page One]
Groovy UK psychedelic pop that probably just missed the boat. 'The Otherside' has since become a retro-fave, with a couple of other strong tracks making for a pretty nice, if lightweight, package. Founded in Cardiff by guitarist Rob Ingram and bassist Jeff Harrad the band only made one LP before realising psychedelia was on the wane.
