Strawberry Alarm Clock - The World In A Sea Shell/Good Morning Starshine (1968-69) [2004]

The third long-player from Strawberry Alarm Clock runs the gamut of pop music. This unfortunately detracts from the album's cohesion instead of unifying it. As with their previous release Wake Up...It's Tomorrow, The World in a Sea Shell offers a few criminally overlooked tracks. However, for the most part, the contents vacillate between the saccharine sweetness of the mid-tempo opening track "Sea Shell" and the overly orchestrated "An Angry Young Man" and "Home Sweet Home." Any cohesive momentum from the first two LPs has seemingly been discarded for the external input of different writers. Increasingly, the band began to turn externally for material. This was partially due to pressures from producers Bill Holmes and Frank Slay, who brought in Roy Freeman to write lyrics for the band because -- in the words of bassist and composer George Bunnell -- "they thought we were awful at it." Contributions also come from the somewhat unlikely team of Carole King and Toni Stern. "Blues for a Young Girl Gone" and "Lady of the Lake" are akin to the stuff the pair was concurrently writing for the likes of the Monkees. Both suffer the double-edged sword of having such a strong voice written into them. They end up sounding more like the Mike Curb Congregation than any of the other material on the disc. Saving the album are the kitschy "Barefoot in Baltimore," as well as the lost rock & roll masterpiece "Love Me Again" -- a spirited number that could easily be mistaken for a discarded Buffalo Springfield track. The latter features the return of the classic Strawberry Alarm Clock noir vibe -- replete with haunting vocal harmonies, over-amped fuzz guitar leads, and harpsichord-drenched accents that drive the tune front to back. The fitting "Eulogy" is a final group effort and draws on the same strengths as "Pretty Song from Psych-Out" and "The Curse of the Witches" from Wake Up...It's Tomorrow.
Good Morning Starshine :
This is the fourth and final long-player of new material from Strawberry Alarm Clock (SAC). As with their previous discs, Good Morning Starshine is a mixed affair. Prior to recording the album, the band underwent a somewhat drastic personnel change -- replacing longtime members George Bunnell (bass/vocals) and Randy Seol (drums/vocals) with Jimmy Pitman (guitar/vocals) and Gene Gunnels (drums), respectively. Also of note is the fact that all of Bunnell's songwriting credits for material on this album actually belong to Gunnels. The music has shifted away from the mix of punky psychedelia such as "Love Me Again" and "The World Is on Fire," inheriting a much more aggressive, bluesy approach ? la Grand Funk Railroad or even (gasp) MC5. Although there are sonic vestiges and remnants of the band's former self -- such as the disc's pseudo-hippie title track -- by all accounts this was the antithesis of what the band had been up until this point. The dichotomy in the material on Good Morning Starshine is indicative that SAC had pretty much run their course. With managerial and other behind-the-scenes issues continuing to plague them, there are no signs of cohesion within the grooves. The disc is certainly full of strong material, despite the decidedly aimless direction. "Small Package" is reminiscent of the band's sound, circa Wake Up...It's Tomorrow. Likewise, the song is a minor chord masterpiece in the same vein as their previous hit, "Tomorrow." The "California Girls" vocal tag is a nod to the Beach Boys, with whom SAC shared many a late-'60s performance stage. Additionally, either of the two versions of the mid-tempo rocker "Miss Attraction" would have been a welcome addition to their earlier releases. The free-form jamming and lead guitar lines are definitely reminiscent of early Spirit and the highly underrated Bay Area band Kak. The heavier and blues-influenced "Me and the Township," "Off Ramp Road Tramp," and "Hog Child" recall Blue Cheer and even later-era Moby Grape as much as they do the electric British blues of, say, Fleetwood Mac.