Artist: The Pretty Things
Album: S.F. Sorrow
Year: 1968
The Pretty Things were one of the first bands to turn their vision of psychedelic rock into a full fledged rock opera. S.F. Sorrow is about a guy with that exact name and it follows him from birth to death, kinda David Copperfield-like. A neat concept, but would it work for me?
Not really. I can see this album as kind of a mix of blues and psychedelia, and in that sense it's well done. It's just that none of the songs are particularly memorable to me. "Baron Saturday" is probably the best thing here in my opinion, which doesn't sound too far off from some of the stuff on Revolver. It also has vocals similar to Murray Head's on "One Night In Bangkok," which is effing hilarious to me. The murky psychedelia of "I See You" is also a highlight. My biggest problem with this album is that it's meant to be a concept album, to tell a story, and it frankly does a shitty job at doing that. If you're going to be pretentious enough to try this kind of thing, at least have it be easy to follow the story arc. Shakespeare they ain't.
I've now listened to this album twice, but gonna have to pass on a third listen. S.F. Sorrow is dead to me.
Rating: Not worth a listen
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