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DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC/HUMS (1965/1966)
(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
This is two Lovin' Spoonful albums on one disc. The first twelve tracks on here make up the first Lovin' Spoonful album Do You Believe In Magic, while the latter eleven make up Hums, the third and maybe strongest album from the band. About half of these tracks can be found on the Anthology set, but even so this is still a worthy purchase from the band as the other tracks make for an interesting listen at least. The first album contains a lot of folky blues tracks like "Blues In A Bottle", "Sportin' Life" and "Nite Owl Blues", which although nothing special are competent and not bad to listen to.
"Wild About My Lovin'" and "Other Side Of This Life" are two other simple cuts on here that can be enjoyable to listen to. The rocking "My Gal" and the fairly heavy (at least for 1965) "On The Road Again", are two of the better album tracks on the first album. Still, nothing quite comes close to the great sunshine folk-pop of the title track, the quiet and melodic "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind", or the feel-good "Younger Girl". Overall, it's a patchy set from the Lovin' Spoonful, as the singles are the only tunes that really give you good vibes and make any kind of impression.
Hums fairs a little better in that the album tracks are not as generic and a little more interesting to the ear. "Bes' Friend" has a simple jugband sound to it, "Voodoo In My Basement" has a bluesy melody with dark drums, "4 Eyes" is a rougher blues number, and "Henry Thomas" with its mixture of folk, country, and bluegrass is a little enjoyable tune. Of course, typical Lovin' Spoonful filler like "Darlin' Companion" makes its appearance on here among well-crafted singles like "Full Measure" and the monster hit "Summer In The City". "Lovin' You", Rain On The Roof", "Coconut Grove", and "Nashville Cats" are other good tunes on here, all of which can be found on the Anthology set. This set gives a clear indication that the Lovin' Spoonful are a singles band, as their album tracks are just competent and sometimes enjoyable filler, compared to the major and lesser hits.
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(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
Lovin' Spoonful were a fairly popular pop/folk-rock band during the mid-1960's; they had quite a few top 40 singles during their hey-day of 1965-67. As bands like The Beatles, The Byrds, and Dylan were changing the way music was recorded, bands like Mamas & The Papas, and the Lovin' Spoonful were hitting the charts with less groundbreaking, but fantastic pop singles. In the three or so years they were together, they released about half-a-dozen records and a few big hits such as the psychedelic-pop classic "Summer In The City", which is collected on this set.
Done in chronological fashion, Anthology contains all of the hit singles they had, along with key album tracks. Their harmless pop has substance and a special quality to it, since the band would always try to use a different style on each single they recorded. From early John Sebestian (he wrote the majority of the tunes) material like the lead-off track "Good Time Music" (a rhythm and blues slice of mid-tempo rock n' roll) to later orchestrated pop such as "She Is Still A Mystery", the band kept things wholly interesting. The simple folky-pop of "Do You Believe In Magic" and "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice" (infectious and cute) are early highlights on here from late 1965. The former was used later quite horribly for a McDonald's commercial, yet on here it has such a spring-time joyful melody, while the latter is a nice ballad with an autoharp (one of the many instruments they toyed with) on it.
The classic "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind", which is a groovy tune with mellow vocals and a quiet organ pumping in the background, is one of the band's best tunes. This song, along with "You Baby", the melodic folky-pop of "Younger Girl", and "Fishin' Blues" round out the tunes from their first album. Lovin' Spoonful's most productive and high-quality year came in 1966, with the mellowed-out blues-pop of "Daydream", which inspired Paul McCartney's "For No One" later that year, being one of their most enjoyable singles from that time. Another gem from the Daydream album, "Jug Band Music", continues the bands desire to be diverse within their pop format, with a tasty fuzz-bass guitar sound and silly lyrics making it a memorable and distinctive tune.
Then comes the dreamy "Didn't Want To Have To Do It", which is followed by the groups most well-known song "Summer In The City", a tune that works as a top highlight on here, with its creepy, memorable piano intro clashing perfectly with the loose and more poppy choruses. The traffic noises in the background and sustained organ during the piano add to this pyschedelic-pop classic. From the soundtrack album What's Up, Tiger Lily? (one of the two soundtrack LP's the band released) comes the nice and simple countryish tune "Pow!", which is an alright tune.
After this are several tunes collected from the late 1966 Hum's album, their third long-player. Among these well-crafted folk-pop numbers are the homely "Rain On The Roof", straightforward country n' western tune "Nashville Cats", a harmless piano-pop number called "Full Measure", and the enjoyable ditties "Lovin' You" and "Coconut Grove" (a nice minor melody on this one). One of the most underrated tunes on here is the acoustic-turned orchestrated pop-folk tune "Darling Be Home Soon", an early 1967 single which has sweet and affecting vocals from Sebestian, along with a less 'cutesy' production than before. The lightweight "You're A Big Boy Now" seems almost like a retread, while "Lonely (Amy's Theme)" is a very decent instrumental, both of them from the soundtrack album You're A Big Boy Now.
The later material on here has a psychedelic edge, like the well-crafted pop tune "Six O' Clock" (a striking harpsichord gives the song an interesting opening), "She Is Still A Mystery" (a nice bubble-gummy tune), "Money", and the just alright "Younger Generation". The last two tunes I don't care for, as they show a weaker and dwindling band, as the two main members of the band, Sebestian and Zal are gone. "Never Going Back", which actually has a fine guitar solo, and the orchestrated "Me About You", are fairly boring 1968 tunes, that show the band getting ready to separate. This one-disc anthology is the definitive collection, and probably the only purchase one needs to make from the Lovin' Spoonful catalog, unless you wanna dig a little deeper.
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