It’s fun how with every song on this listening to it I will think "well, it clearly wouldn't have sounded like this if they recorded it in 1964". Maybe even early 1965. Their scene was certainly moving fast - and they did, sort of, keep up for now sonically at least, not near the front but not having given up either.
Even the boring ballads like "That's How Long Our Love Will Last" or "A Little Bit of Love". The very pronounced acoustic intro with organ on the former, or the repetitive piano tinkle on the latter, or the big piano chords. The distorted-country-rock intro of “I Am on My Own” that you mentioned. The tight piano-drums-groove intro to “Goodbye My Friends”. There are quite a lot of creative sonic ideas here. Not that it amounts to great songs…
I always liked the DC5, with, on their best tracks, a tough sound that was a bracing alternative to the likes of Herman et al, the Hollies, Peter and Gordon, and so on. Mike Smith was brilliant.
It’s fun how with every song on this listening to it I will think "well, it clearly wouldn't have sounded like this if they recorded it in 1964". Maybe even early 1965. Their scene was certainly moving fast - and they did, sort of, keep up for now sonically at least, not near the front but not having given up either.
Even the boring ballads like "That's How Long Our Love Will Last" or "A Little Bit of Love". The very pronounced acoustic intro with organ on the former, or the repetitive piano tinkle on the latter, or the big piano chords. The distorted-country-rock intro of “I Am on My Own” that you mentioned. The tight piano-drums-groove intro to “Goodbye My Friends”. There are quite a lot of creative sonic ideas here. Not that it amounts to great songs…
I always liked the DC5, with, on their best tracks, a tough sound that was a bracing alternative to the likes of Herman et al, the Hollies, Peter and Gordon, and so on. Mike Smith was brilliant.
Huh, that's a good album... for the first four songs. I can almost picture Slade covering "I Need Love" on one of their early albums.