JOHN BROMLEY Sing UK '69 freakbeat psych Fading Yellow

$

151

ORIGINAL UK pressing of this TREMENDOUS top-drawer British popsike album by John Bromley, “Sing”, from 1969 on the UK Polydor label.  Featuring members of the UK freakbeat psych band Fleur de Lys backing him up.  This one’s still a bit of an unknown pleasure, thanks to all the reissue labels who refuse to reissue it, but are more than happy to foist yet another repackaging of the Nazz albums on us – thanks guys! – but anyone into the (great) British psychedelic trip sounds of Turquoise, Tintern Abbey and the Idle Race will LOVE every minute of this album – especially the bouncy toytown pop of “Melody Fayre”, whose statement of purpose reads something like “Jingle jangle, melody fayre, merry go under and up in the air” – sheer bloody popsike poetry, really.  Not to mention the KILLER “Sugar Love”, the umpteenth British popsike song to mention “sugar” and every bit as punchy and catchy as the Smoke’s “My Friend Jack”, Ginger Ale’s “Sugar Suzy” and even the Beatstalkers’ “Sugar Chocolate Machine.”  The stately “So Many Times” starts out like a house on fire with BURNING in-your-face guitar licks, but then settles down to some beautiful mellow baroque pop verses.  It’s very early Bee Gees, roughed up a bit but every inch as majestic and refined.  The stunningly gorgeous “If You Are There” sounds like a ’66 McCartney acoustic ballad, with a great big can’t-miss hook and soaring George Martin strings that turn it into a thing of baroque Beatlesque beauty.  Things bog down a bit toward the middle, with two back-to-back old-timey Tin Pan Alley numbers that might even make Ray Davies fast forward – but since these come at the end of Side 1 and the start of Side 2, you can sort of excuse their proximity.  But then again, ANY song that features a soft shoe tapdance drum pattern and Hurricane Smith vocals should NEVER EVER lead off an album side, even Side 2, and that goes for Hurricane Smith too.  But thankfully, Mr. Bromley rebounds nicely, as we all knew he would, for the lush soft pop goodness of “Weather Man”, a stunning thing of orchestrated beauty that will have any fan of the Fading Yellow series salivating as if it were a lost Mike Batt single.  As well they should, because this is one GREAT album, a little front-loaded but that’s the way albums should be.  This is one you can file comfortably next to the Idle Race’s “Birthday Party”, the Smoke’s “It’s Smoke Time” and the Bee Gees “Trafalgar” and it’ll make friends fast.  Now someone PLEASE reissue this on CD soon!   Cover's in VG++ shape with just a bit of laminating crinkling near the spine.  Vinyl looks as new as the day it was minted, no marks whatsoever, and plays strong VG++, although track 1 skips once.

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