Apple– The Otherside, [An Apple A Day]

The intro is the first hint that things aren’t quite right here. And that guitar? Doesn’t make another appearance until the chorus halfway through—and only briefly. It’s the prevalence of piano that makes this group stand out from its peers. Presaging Elton John, it adds a touch of barroom bombast that was always bubbling up beneath anything good that came out of the psychedelic 60s. What? Just because they took acid, doesn’t mean they didn’t drink.

[buy An Apple A Day here]

July– My Clown, [July]

It’s the beautifully underwater-sounding vocals that make this one special for me. And then there’s that enormous break in the middle built for The Chemical Brothers to rip off for their next Beatles homage. One of the thing that that goes underrated, I think, is the restraint of some of the band’s during this period. While it took just as much courage to unshackle from the constraints of popular music and fly into the unknown, it seems like it probably took just as much to come back down to Earth for some bands. And, if you do, you get gems like this right on the edge of both.

[buy July here]

Blossom Toes– Mrs. Murphy’s Budgerigar, [We Are Ever So Clean]

From: Blossom Toes
To: Of Montreal
Re:

We already did this. Better.

[buy We Are Ever So Clean here]