The Electric Prunes

I like how they made almost a solid album and then decided to stick an absolute stinker right at the end to sour the whole experience. Absolute wet fart of a song. I Had Too Much To Dream and Get Me To The World On Time are good songs but most of the other songs feel generic to me.

Never heard of this before. It was alright I guess, but nothing really jumped out at me.

Proof, if proof was needed, that not everything recorded in 1967 is a classic worth remembering. Here we have an album that even the band thought was disappointing.

Rushed into the studio to cash in on the moderate success of their two singles, they had their own songs sidelined and were given a set of songs by commercial songwriters and, inexplicably, a cover of a 1932 show tune.

It seems to be a story of a band thinking they were important artists and the label seeing them as the songwriters vehicle.

The album is all over the shop. There's some Psychedelia, a protest song, some soft, chart friendly love songs, a couple of novelty hits and the one song the band did write pretty much convinces you that they were better off with the label's writers.

Probably the best things on the record are the two singles and Try Me On For Size, which is musically fine, although, to be honest, the lyrics are of the 60s, creepy, just-a-bit-rapey variety that passed for manly, tough guy that the girls can't pass up in 67.

So its a bit of a label cash on a sort of successful band, with the singles, some future singles and a bit of filler. To be clear, for every Revolver, or Blonde on Blonde, there were probably 50 albums made like this. The question remains, of course, why is it on this list? I pause for a reply.

ok psych rock. pleasant enough but unsure if its place on the list is warranted

Post-Beatles pop-rock. Catchy and fun.

One of the earlier and better pop psychedelic records, fronted by the improbable hit single “Too Much to Dream”. I’m an outsized fan of this band and therefore of this record - but would rate their second album “Underground” ahead of this, given its focus on band-penned songs, and a more consistent mellow psych sound. This has a few beauties and showcased production effects that changed the game in their day….very good stuff and important in its day.

the last song trully got me, it was super unexpected

3.75

A below average 60’s psych-rock album. It starts off quite promising with “I had too much to dream (last night)” which is easily the best song here, but then quickly spirals out into a series of songs that are either forgettable or somewhat annoying (the closing track especially is annoying.) this one just didn’t do a lot for me and there’s a lot of other, better 60’s psych rock I could listen to instead.

It's been a while since I heard anything by The Electric Prunes. A year and a half ago, I first listened to their big hit, "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)". That mesmerizing vibration of the fuzzed-out guitar was such a distinct sound that felt complementary to a low-key garage-psych track about longing for an ex-lover. That style is pretty much apropos for the band's self-titled debut. Ken Williams's guitar effects tinkering, Mark Tulin's decent organ playing, and other such instrumental embellishments gave a slight edge to these surf-adjacent tunes. Meanwhile, the singers were more contemplative about their romantic interests than other acts were singing about at the time, which I found intriguing.

There were a few problems I had with this record. The overall production was rather muted, rarely pushing for a louder sound outside of the Indian-inspired tremolo picking that's pushed to the front of the mix on "Sold to the Highest Bidder". Also, I have to admit that "The Toonerville Trolley" was a very hokey showtune ending that was sonically and lyrically at odds with the rest of the album.

Still, I consider The Electric Prunes' self-titled debut to be solid overall, as it helped pave the way for the acid rock acts to come.

The idea of a '60s garage rock band I didn't already know was pretty exciting. Unfortunately this isn't really a consistent album. Some of it's great. Some of it's just OK. And some of it's kind of rough. Nothing here is groundbreaking. Honestly wish I liked this more.

During the first chorus of the first track, which I’d never heard before, he sings, “I had too much to dream last night … too much to dream.” I knew he was going to sing the second “too much to dream,” and I suspect everyone else listening to the song for the first time did too. What is it about music that conveys that information to us? We all know, from some kind of cultural imprinting, what’s coming next. I thought that was interesting. More interesting than that song or any other song on the album. But it was fine and under 30 minutes. Efficiently average.

I wish to time travel to the room where the band discussed writing, recording, and including on this album the final track, so I can encourage better decisions.

Fine, but wholly inessential, especially considering all of the amazing music from this time period.

3.5/5

Very well aged psychodelic rock, even if nothing beats the first song.

the first half was actually really good but it got a bit creepy and rapey by the end

This wasn’t my favorite, but I enjoyed it more than quite a few 60’s albums I’ve gotten so far.

Such a time capsule of mid 60s pop-psychedelic rock. For my personal taste it’s three stars, but I’m tempted to give it four just for its purity. From start to finish if somebody asked what that era sounded like this album would be a fine example.

Not as bad as the reviews suggest, but not for me.

Een bloemlezing van de jaren '60. Ik kom er warempel nog vrij makkelijk doorheen. Wellicht door de variatie. Voor die verschrikkelijke muziekperiode is dit gelukkig vrij vergeetbaar.

2.0