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The cover illustration of an open red wine bottle, toppled over, with the contents pouring out over a clean, white, flat surface almost sums up the flavour of the occasion. “Be More Careful” is such a SF 60s number, an amalgam of Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and Quicksilver Messenger Service, with Sly and his stoned family somewhere in the mix, and Moby Grape are on the horizon. This splendid psyche moment continues with “Rinse And Repeat”, and “What’s Yours Is Mine”. And although the pace lessons on “I’ve Forged A Woman In My Mind”, it does have a mixed tempo thing going on, and the track appears to run into the next one (“Secret Songs”) at this increased pace. Then “Watch Me Disappear” introduces “It’s A Beautiful Day” to the proceedings, with violin flurries to the fore. They segue into some contemporary, straight rock territory on “Guest Check Love Song” and “Thea”, which are both quite superb, but the last three tracks do tail off, losing their impetus and direction with a fairly average sound. This can surely be forgiven, though, after the mesmerizing stuff on the other eight tracks. And “These Things Happen”, the final (and title) track of the album does recover momentum, re-introducing the aforementioned 60s psyche feel, making a suitable closing two and a half minutes of disciplined mayhem to quite a stupendous album. |
