Psychedelia Album Club I - "Incense and Peppermints" - The Strawberry Alarm Clock
 

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...eppermints.jpg

When you're done listening to the album, tell us here so we know when everyone is ready to discuss. Feel free to mention a couple of first impressions, but abstain from any serious discussion.

Okay, listening now. I know what my album will be when it's my turn.

I have been doing tons of searching and I can't find anyway to listen to it.
Could you please provide a link, and also maybe a link for the lyrics.
I always read them while listening or I might not get something.

It's on Spotify, if you have that.

I'm two songs away from being done, but I don't like this. At best it's like a 2/5 - does nothing for me. Okay done discussing now sorry.

I do use Spotify. I can't see it anywhere. I put in "Strawberry Alarm Clock" and it only shows one album called Wake Up Where You Are.

^it's on there for me, maybe do a search for the album.

I'll have a review up by this weekend.

It's on YouTube.

Strawberry Alarm Clock - Full Album - Incense and Peppermints - YouTube

And most of the song lyrics (with the exception of the first 2 tracks) for the album can be found here...

Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense And Peppermints Album Lyrics

Oh Youtube. I rely too much on Spotify. Thanks. I will give it a listen soon.

I'm being tortured by The Batlord with Limp Bizkit atm, but will try to get a listen to it in the next day or so.

BTW you can put my choice spot up for grabs too, as I know nothing about this music and could not hope to recommend anything. I'll learn from you guys.

I've always preferred Wake Up... It's Tomorrow to this one, but it's a classic no doubt. The first track is a stellar acid rock jam, and it's my favorite on the album by a long shot. Strawberry Alarm Clock, especially with the title track of this album, are a good soundtrack for the stereotype that we envision the late 60's counterculture hippie era to be like. Maybe more thoughts later, but it's a 7/10 from me. A lot of bands from the same time were releasing what I'd consider much stronger albums. This one is more poppy and junk, not that that's bad or anything.

I'm ready to go whenever the rest of you are.

Same here.

By the way, I've posted the full picking order on the original thread. Mondo, you're up next.

Spotify link

If clicking it doesn't work, copy it and then paste it into the Spotify search field.

Oh, and I've listened to the album now.

I've been meaning to listen to this band for a bit, good excuse to finally do so. Almost done with my first listen.

I have. I'll post my review soon.

So Josef, Briks, Mondo, Psy-Fi, sidewinder, Frownland, and I have all heard the album. Not bad, considering it's been just over 48 hours.

I love this album so much. If I had been alive in the 1960s, my basis for who I'd bang would rest solely on whether or not the person in question dug the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Have not listened to this album in such a long time, completely forgot how good it is. Such a classic psychedelic sound.

You interested in joining the club, LiL?

Maybe. I just don't have a lot of time on my hands on a regular basis these days.

That link will only give me access to two tracks, and it doesn't come up when I search in my Spotify Premium either... any other sources? Tried GS, no luck.
:banghead:

Edit: Never mind: I saw Psy-Fi's link to YouTube. Thanks man! Guess us Irish/UK proles don't get access to the album over here on Spotify!

I have the album in full (plus loads more) on this playlist if anyone needs to get their SAC fix today.

Well, you're certainly welcome to drop in any time if you fancy as a part-timer. Let me know if you want your name added to the rotation. :)

Okay then, here we go. Am I first? Seriously? Wow. Well anyway...

Surprisingly --- for me at least, who expected to hear hippy-dippy **** mostly, shows what I know! --- there's some really quite heavy-ish guitar on this --- sounds like Carlos but I doubt it --- and I like the vibraphone in the first track. It's a bit repetitive but not necessarily in a bad way. The organ is kind of Doors-ish, not that I know too much of them really but that's what it puts me in mind of. I hope no tracks run together as I'm listening on YouTube, and won't be able to tell when one changes to another. Also my Wiki page does not give track times, which would be a way to separate what is essentially one long track here.

But at least "The world's on fire" has ended, and I do like the throaty organ in "Birds in my tree". Great melody, almost 70s in places, very uplifting and I like the chorus. Elements of the Fab Four in there? Aw. That was too short! Kind of a proggy/jazzy feeling to "Lose to live", reminds me of the Moodies a bit. Bit of a mad drum solo. Not mad about this one if I'm honest. Okay well that wasn't too long either, though I'm not so sad about that. Should I say "bummed"? It's psychedelia innit? Bummed? I'm not bummed? Do I need to add a "man"? :rofl:

Seriously, "Strawberries mean love" is a nice gentle song with some great vocal harmonies and a good melody. Oh, and it's again too short. "Rainy day mushroom pillow" --- if ever a title exemplified everything I think about psych/hippies, this is it. Like the flute, decent song though the vocal is a little drony and boring to me. The harpischord, or whatever it is, is nice though, as is the organ. Hey! It IS a harpsichord! Nice! :thumb:

The next track is nice too, but it's a little nondescript, though the interplay between guitar and organ is good. That takes us to "Hummin' happy", which is more uptempo and again recalls for me the Moody Blues. Also the Doors. And Windows. No, just kidding: this album doesn't crash my computer every time I --- DAMN!

Where was I before I had to reboot? Oh yeah. A harder, rockier song in "Pass time with the SAC", and one of my favourite instruments, the harmonica comes into play. Sweet. An instrumental, again too short, ands takes us into the title track. Yeah, I like this: it has just the right amount of weird in it to interest but not annoy me. The closer then is "Unwind with the clock", a sort of jazzy boogie that bumps along nicely on a sweet bassline and a great walking organ run. May be another instrumental? Is. Not. Singing came in very late indeed, and what's with this weird little bit at the end? Very pleasant though.

As everyone one knows, this is not the sort of music I tend to listen to, but after several months of listening to bands roar into battle, scream about gutting virgins and kicking the living **** out of each other (Wow! Christian Contemporary Rock Month is gonna be a doozy!) ;) it's nice to be able to kick back and just enjoy some, not quite bland but certainly happy music. This was not the limp, wimpy, hippy sort of thing I expected, and in general, yeah, I enjoyed it. Not gonna be at the top of any album lists I make, but a good album nonetheless.

Rating: 6/10

Glad you enjoyed it, TH. I should have one of my patented point-form mini-reviews up tonight. Oh, and I had a thought. How about we all rate the album out of ten stars (round numbers only!), and I'll average out our ratings and create an RYM account for the club?

I only do 10 stars, don't believe in that 5 star nonsense

I think I've already stated that Incense and Peppermints is a favourite of mine. It's a desert island album for sure.

• The flute, as I've remarked before, is one of the most underused instruments in rock music. I absolutely love the flute playing on here.
• Lyrically, this is as close to perfection as any album I've heard, especially the opening lines to the title track. They're weird enough to let you escape, but not weird enough to detract from the music.
• I love the vocals as well, the delivery and tone gives some the album a certain urgency.
• The organ is also very well-played.
• As Trollheart already mentioned, most of the songs are quite short, but I find that adds to my enjoyment of the album and creates a constantly-shifting musical landscape.

Standout tracks: Birds in My Tree, Strawberries Mean Love, Incense and Peppermints

Overall, I find that this album manages to be both a great collection of individual songs and a unified whole, which is a rarity. It gets a

9/10

When I first listened to this album it was the version that they had on Spotify, but looking around on Youtube shows that the Spotify version is untrue to the original. This is unfortunate because it turns out that my favourite track on the album, Sit With the Guru, was actually on Wake Up...It's Tomorrow, but it also means that my least favourite tracks, "Barefoot in Baltimore", "Birdman of Alkatrash", and "Starting Out the Day" aren't actually on this album.

With that said and a proper listen to the record courtesy of Youtube, I think this is a great album. I think my favourite moment on the album is the drum solo from "Lose to Live", great stuff. There's a lot of fantastic organ and flute on here as Pet Sounds mentioned, and the organ is my favourite element of the album, especially with the title track (one of the most notable hippy tracks out there as it's constantly used in flashback scenes and such, it creates an image of the movement whenever I listen to it because of this) and the closer, "Unwind With the Clock". The closer track also has some fantastic marimba (I believe, actually listening closer I think it's a vibraphone) jumping in on the fun. "Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow" is a fantastic track as well, one that's actually served as part of the soundtrack to one of my rainy mushroom days :D. One thing that somewhat deters from the album, but not to a great degree, is the repetition of the vocals. A lot of the same intervals and melodic lines are used as well as the "oo-oo"s in the background vocals and the "la la la"s prevalent throughout the album. Nothing big, but it's prominent enough to note.

Overall a fantastic album, I was originally going to give it a lower rating based on the Spotify version, but I'm glad that I did a little more research because I would have missed out on some extra tracks that are pretty great too. 8/10

There are two albums called the same thing on Spotify - Incense and Peppermints is the album, whereas Incense & Peppermints is a later compilation.

I'll have a review up tomorrow morning, as the only person here who didn't enjoy the album.

I've updated my post to show a rating. I've only rated it so relatively low as this is not the sort of music I'm used to, and though I enjoyed it it's not an album I would really go out of my way to listen to.

This is a fantastic album. If you look up Psychedelic in the dictionary they should have a picture of this album. I'm sure the title track brings back the 60's to many people more than just about any other song. It’s just such a classic sounding album, some might say dated, but I say it’s certainly “of it’s time”, or maybe ahead of it’s time when it came out. There is no way a modern band trying to sound psychedelic could pull something like this off, it’s a product of the time.

Anyways, part of what makes this album great is the musicianship. A song like “The Worlds on fire” mixes in Vibes, Organ, Guitar, Flute, Bass, and harmony vocals and it all works. You got “Lose to love” which throws in some nice time changes and there are other “proggy” elements throughout (which makes Trollhearts low score a bit of a surprise :) )These are not slouch musicians. Great Organ throughout the album. Some nice guitar by Ed King himself. I mean this guy co writes the title track and 5 years later helped write Sweet Home Alabama among other Skynyrd hits. Whatever you may think of that band, Ed King played some ripping guitar when he was with them and you can hear his chops on this album.

Great overall sound, holds together as an album and not just a group of songs. It was a pleasure to revisit it after so long, I forgot how good it was.

8/10

Frankly I didn't enjoy this. I like the opener and "Lose to Live", and the title track is catchy, but this doesn't do much for me. I didn't hate any song, but the album wore on me and I was pretty bored with it by the end. This may just be me not being open-minded enough - the "psychedelic" stuff from the era that I like tends to be either very smooth and well-arranged (Pet Sounds) or more proto-punk/garage rock (13th Floor Elevators), but it still just does nothing for me. The sound is very dated - a quality that many of the truly great albums of the time don't have for me. Obviously they're more-than-competent instrumentalists, but that doesn't mean I was gritting my teeth any less by track seven or so. 4/10

Last chance to discuss the album, folks! Tomorrow Mondo names his pick. You don't have to "Trollheart" it, but do post a rating and some notes.

I'm too tired to write anything long. It was a decent album, catchy enough, but felt a little dated. 7/10, maybe,

Way to not Trollheart it, my man! Hey! I've made it! I'm a verb! :tramp:

The Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense and Peppermints (1967)

Well unfortunately I've only had the chance to listen to the album once, but I have to speak my mind now because it's my last chance!

I felt like it was a good bit of 60s psychedelic pop, but also pretty run-of-the-mill as far as the genre is concerned. An album you might discover when you're digging really deep into 60s psych pop, when you just can't get enough of The Beatles, The Kinks, The Byrds, The Stones, Love, The Zombies, etc. and you must find and discover new bands. Eventually you get to stuff like this, The Action, Clear Light, The Creation, The Smoke, Chocolate Watch Band, The Fallen Angels, The Family Tree, The Idle Race, The Moon, etc. and among those are albums I really like, but for the most part with these one listen isn't going to blow me away and that's what happened here. I may come to like it with more listens, but I have a ton of similar records already and I don't feel like it offers much to prove its worth.

The sad part is that many of us will reach for something a bit more obscure than the psychedelic music almost everyone knows, so there's that chance its amazing to that person and everyone else giving it a single cursory listen won't get it. Unfortunately that's the way these things go. At least we give it a chance and who knows, it might strike a chord on the first listen. That's what we always hope anyway.

But as of now I have to give this a 6/10.

I had meant to leave a review earlier but other more pressing issues came up, so I had to put it off until now. When I think of 60's psych, The Strawberry Alarm Clock are one of the first bands that come to my mind and the title track 'Incense and Peppermints' is one of the songs that I think of right away. While there are other 60's psych bands and albums I listen to more often and perhaps enjoy a bit more, this album would probably make my personal top 50 albums of the genre. Solid musicianship and production throughout with a variety within the songs to keep the album interesting to the end. The music sounds firmly rooted in 1967 and even the album cover looks very much from the 'summer of love' with everything included except a sitar. Very dated but musically, lyrically and vocally an enjoyable listen nonetheless.

I give it a 7/10 overall.

To "Trollheart" - To defy the laws of space time by spending 30 hours in a 24 hour period discussing and documenting thoughts on music. See also "8 days a week".

Overall, we gave it 62/90, which works out to 7/10, or 3.5/5 on RYM. I'll set up that account tomorrow.

Thanks man!

I was actually expecting something more along these lines:
Trollheart (v.), From the Old English "Trollum" (to work hard or labour at something) and "Hearteffen" (to love something; literally, to put one's entire heart and soul into it): To describe every note, lyric and influence on every album reviewed, to waffle on at length about the artiste, optionally throwing in personal information and experiences. To upset mods by posting n times a day, every day, and to constantly overload older computers with too many YouTube videos" --- erratum: the last part of that desciption no longer applies as of 2014...

Examples: "He really Trollhearted the hell out of that!" or "I don't need to hear the album, he already Trollhearted it for me."