Artist: The Mamas & The Papas
Album: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
Year: 1966
The Mamas & The Papas have always been something of a funny band to me. They are probably the quintessential "sunshine pop" band, a movement known for its purity of image. The Partridge Family and the Brady Kids would come to follow in this wholesome image.
And yet it feels to me that The Mamas & The Papas have this undercurrent of darkness and veiled sexuality to their music. Maybe I'm trying too hard to read into things, but take a listen to "Straight Shooter" and tell me that it's not about the search for a heroin fix.
Anyway, this is a really nice album with lots of pretty songs, assimilating the good qualities of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and (to a lesser extent) The Byrds. The boy/girl harmonies were the real innovation here. "Monday, Monday" is a gem, with its rolling harpsichord and singsong vocals. The minor-key "California Dreamin'" is one of the best songs of the decade, bar none. "Do You Wanna Dance" and "You Baby" foreground the Sarah Records twee-pop movement of the late 1980's.
I'm not sure if this album belongs among the 1001 must-hear albums. I will agree that certain songs here are must-hear, but the ones that fall into that category are the ones everybody knows already ("Monday, Monday," "California Dreamin'"). The rest of the album is pleasant enough, but pales in comparison. The thing that makes them interesting is what I said at first...their happy pop music does seem to have enough impurities to keep it interesting.
Rating: Worth a listen
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