In any given era, there are numerous albums by
rock musicians who've obviously assimilated styles and ideas by many leading figures of the period, but don't synthesize them in a particularly interesting way. Such was the case with Thorinshield's only album, where elements of the psychedelic Beatles, the Byrds, California harmony
pop groups, and singer/songwriters jostle side by side, but the songs themselves aren't too notable. It's
pop-
folk-
rock sung, played, harmonized, and produced with late-'60s Los Angeles craftsmanship, and if you're looking for stuff that's well-executed with those traits, it has its pleasing qualities. You'd be hard-pressed to say much about what makes this stick out from the crowd, however, and at times the inspirations become kind of obvious. "Brave New World" sounds like a mating of the Byrds, Donovan, and the Mamas & the Papas, for instance; "The Best of It" shades those colors with something of a more mainstream
pop slant to the songwriting; "Prelude to a Postlude" nods to earnest singer/songwriters of the time by Bob Lind, Tim Hardin, and the like, though again with a more mainstream approach; and "One Girl" is a pretty blatant, if decent, cop of 1966-1967 Donovan. [The 2006 CD reissue on Fallout adds brief historical liner notes and both sides of the 1968 non-LP single "Family of Man" b/w "Lonely Mountain Again."].