Groovin’

Is every album from the 60s in here or something? Terminally dull with no redeeming qualities

Fitting that this thing still has some forgettable 60s pop in the tank as I move through the final week. I just need to draw another one-hit wonder new wave band from the 80s, and some no-name DJ's techno release from the 90s, and I'll have a nice balanced 1001 Generator meal to close things out.

This one is far more than its title track, tho 'Groovin'' is one of the most profound feel-good tracks of all time. The album is all positivity: 'I'm so happy now'; 'I feel a strange, exciting thing about to be'; 'Life could be ecstasy / You and me endlessly.' Even on a song like 'I Don't Love You Anymore,' assertiveness is the name of the game: 'It's like my life had just begun.' Their cover of 'A Place in the Sun,' which more than equals Stevie Wonder's 1966 breakout, maintains the record's sanguinity. Susan Sontag once wrongly criticized Gertrude Stein for being 'all affirmation,' for not being 'where there is an adversary, a problem.' How we explore happiness constitutes an artistic conundrum, a 'problem' if you will. Felix Cavaliere and his fellow New Jerseyites are enthralling explorers of joy: 'You'll never see me complaining / 'Bout love - I'm in all the way.' Same.

I’m pretty impressed with this. It’s such a varied record with so much going for it, and lots of styles and genres. It says it’s psychedelic on here, but that’s only really one track among many. The rest has swells of brass, flutes and even an accordion. He has a great singing voice and it’s just generally solid throughout the whole thing.

This really fucking rocks when it goes for it, and it's a lot more authentic than popular albums that have been digitally remastered into oblivion. Reminded me of The Stone Roses in places, The White Stripes in others.

Never heard of this band. Based on the artwork and the year, I am really not looking forward to this.

Don’t love it. Sounds like an episode of The Brady Bunch.

The band was unknown to me until today. The cover seemed rather off-putting to me. At first, the album sounded like weaker Beatle covers. But then a few really nice songs came along. I could also remember Groovin'. It was nice to hear it again. Overall, the album wasn't as bad as I expected from the cover. Despite being fond of it, it's not enough to be a candidate for my daily stream. Maybe I'll listen to the album again, but probably not. 3/5

Me ha parecido bastante aburrido. Prometía al principio, pero al final se ha quedado en nada. Aunque malo no es.

It’s fine. Mostly forgettable.

It’s a pretty good 3.5 that I’ll bump up to 4.

This doesn’t really get up to a 5 for me, but with another knockout hit or two on here, in that almost timeless “would hear on a medicine commercial made for the boomers” sort of way, I think it would’ve gotten close. Regardless of that, I enjoyed this a lot – it’s very steeped in its time of people trying to catch the success of The Beatles in their own way, but this album tends to feel more original than that. The only times it misses are the moments where tracks feel a little too Beatle-y, namely “If You Knew”, which just felt aggressively OK.

I just thought this was rather nice – a lot of the tracks clicked with my sensibilities, and I thought the instrumentation throughout the album was really strong. There’s a bit of bossa nova in here, some jazz, and even stuff that sounds kinda like Stevie Wonder, which adds up, considering the “A Place in the Sun” cover (by the way, a big thank you to The Young Rascals for introducing me to a new Stevie song). It’s not a great album, but it’s a very enjoyable listen, with some fun melodies, some good vocal structures, and some good vibes throughout. It’s very much a 60s album, but it’s the sort of 60s album that I enjoy. I’m fine with going up to a 4, and I’m glad it’s on the list.

Very quaint and peaceful record. Feels like a really solid more bubblegum-pop esque album. Not really my cup of tea though.

It's alright, I guess. Not that much to it.

Tough to imagine an album cover making a worse first impression. Let’s see how this goes.

Very funny to me that this week we’ve had Revolver (two songwriting geniuses at the height of their powers), Axis: Bold as Love (innovative guitar god), and now this album that seems to have been made by a group of enterprising high school students? With the help of their band teacher, they snuck into the studio and recorded their little songs. (Looked at Wikipedia: they were all like 23, so it kinda tracks.)

I was singing along to “I’m So Happy Now,” so I have to give it some credit, but wow, what a difference in the caliber of songwriting and the originality of playing from other albums this week. And I was familiar with “groovin,” but still don’t like it. This was a pretty boring, generic album. Probably a 2 but I could maybe talk myself into a 1 yet.

Competent and pleasant, with a few distinctly solid tracks. Just not mindblowing or essential.

3.5/5

Replacement level 60s soul pop with all the edge of the Sesame Street house band.

Typically 60’s. Not quite as harminic as The Beach Boys, not as funny as The Monkeys and certainly not The Beatles.

So 60's, so dated...

Not enough groovin and a little all over the place but still an enjoyable 60s beatles wannabe album

Much of this is middling tripe. Some of the more psychedelic songs are kinda cool, but why do I feel like they never even really took acid?

I gotta say this one surprised me. The number of genres/styles The Young Rascals hit in 34 minutes is impressive: funk, bassa nova, doo wap, french waltz, R&B, the list goes on. I was initially dissuaded by how similar the themes of love were across the tracklist but they varied that toward the end of the album. All in all, especially compared to their pre-prog rock contemporaries, they made something pretty cool here. 4/5.