SPIRIT - MODEL SHOP - 1968

Spirit — американская рок-группа, образованная в Лос-Анджелесе в 1968 году и исполнявшая психоделик/прогрессив-рок, насыщенный элементами фолка, блюза, джаза и классической музыки. В период с 1968 по 1977 годы в Billboard Top 100 входили 11 альбомов Spirit.

Творческое ядро коллектива составляли поющий гитарист Рэнди Калифорния (Randy California; настоящее имя — Randolph Craig Wolfe) и барабанщик Эд Кэссиди (Ed Cassidy), их окружение постоянно менялось. Музыкальная критика высоко оценивала творчество Spirit, отмечая стилистическое разнообразие и оригинальность аранжировок. Музыка группы оказала заметное влияние на развитие прог-рока (в частности, на ранних Curved Air).

Меняя состав, Spirit продолжали выступать и записываться вплоть до 2 января 1997 года, когда Рэнди Калифорния утонул у побережья Гавайских островов.
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Model Shop is in ways the soundtrack of a movie made by French director Jacques Demy (funny parallel with Jefferson airplane working with JL Goddard) but not all of the tracks were originally written for the movie either. This "soundtrack" is a mix of tracks from their second and third albums (some in different version or remixed) and a few originals (some of which were already released as bonus tracks on the remastered reissues. But if you are a fan of the original Spirit, you might want to acquire this and not just completionist's sake.

Starting out on the instrumental dreamy jazzy inflected Moving Van, and the other instrumental Mellow Fellow (a wink to Donovan?), the album veers towards the fabulous with the Now Or Everywhere tracks which is a complete re-work from another classic piece of theirs (won't tell you which so you will get this one if you want to find out ;-) and it is astounding and very powerful, (much?) better than the original version. Comes another atmospheric and instrumental aptly-titled Fog (both Fog And Mellow Fellow where released as bonus on the Family remastered album) and the Green Gorilla (hey we are in a model shop, right? ;-) both being excellent.

The first title track is slightly botched-up but the second part will become the title track of their third album,, while the short Rehearsal theme is reminiscent to the anthemic Elijah. Song For Lola and Eventide are jazzy instrumentals (previously never available before) while Coral (available on the Clear bonus tracks) are all superb tracks (mostly instrumental) where spirit shows us just how great they were at jamming, improvising or writing. The album finishes on a re-recorded (and better imho) version of the great Aren't You Glad

If you are a fan like I am, you WILL need this BADLY, as I consider this indispensable "soundtrack" as Spirit's fifth album (rather than that awful Feedback) and while maybe not as good as 12 Dreams, certainly as much as Clear is. I will try to find this movie, just for kicks.
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