Stained Glass - Crazy Horse Roads (1969) (2007)

The first of the pair of albums Stained Glass put out in the late 1960s, Crazy Horse Roads is an odd and unsatisfying patchwork of songs following several trends of the era. The most prominent of those is Buffalo Springfield-like folk-rock with dabs of psychedelia and country-rock, though it's far more from the Stephen Stills side of the Springfield than the Neil Young one. There are also poppier folk-rock/sunshine pop tunes, sometimes slightly similar to the Lovin' Spoonful (such as the lyrically dubious "Soap and Turkey"), that almost sound like the work of a different group. You also get dainty orchestrated early Bee Gees-type pop ("Twiddle My Thumbs"), and occasional stabs at heavier passages, "Doomsday" closing with a mushroom cloud-like explosion that lasts about a minute-and-a-half. Genre-hopping isn't a problem in and of itself, but the material is ordinary, without any really strong tracks. The CD reissue on Fallout has nine bonus tracks from non-LP 1966-1968 singles, most recorded for RCA before their move to Capitol for Crazy Horse Roads, that add considerable value. Though these don't find the band any closer to establishing a distinct identity than the album did, they're generally spryer and more interesting period pop/rock of various shades, blending British Invasion, harmony folk-rock, and Baroque pop influences. The intriguingly bittersweet and catchy "My Buddy Sin," by far their most familiar track owing to its inclusion on the San Francisco Nuggets box set, is the clear highlight. But most of the other bonus tracks are pleasant enough, though some of them lapse into lame vaudevillian grooves..