Search - Tages :: Fantasy Island

Psychedelic period of a good Swedish 60's rock group

Robert Schell | Townsville, Texas | 06/21/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Tages formed in Sweden in the early 60's as a skiffle group, but soon changed their sound after hearing the Mersey sound. Though their sound was very Anglo-philic, they never really made it in England (or America, of course), despite support from Ray Davies of the Kinks, and Roger Daltrey of the Who.This collection includes material from various single releases and two albums dating from 1967-'68, and is for the most part good melodic baroque pop, similar to what groups like the Beatles, Tomorrow, and the Pretty Things were doing at the same time. Though they get pretty weird in "You're too incomprehensible," essentially, this is pop music, and very pleasant pop music at that, with great vocal harmonies. Some songs use traditional rock instrumentation, while others rely heavily on strings, and you hear accordians and flutes here and there. Some songs display a European folk music influence. There are also a couple of '60's style soul numbers, complete with horns, that sound kind of incongruous here. Overall, I'd say this is a must for collector's of 60's psych and baroque pop. The song "I'm going out," a remarkable song with an astonishingly beautiful middle eight section, almost makes it worthwhile all on its own."

Disappointing

Robert Schell | 05/25/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The amazing thing about the English music scene circa 1966-68 isn't just that there was so much truly exceptional music being made there, but also that nowhere else in Europe was music of that quality being produced. The Outsiders from Amsterdam were probably the best band on the continent, and they were only a very good garage band, certainly not in the same league as the Beatles, the Kinks or the Who. Which brings us to the Tages...I bought this cd on the strength of their write-up in allmusic.com, which says the Tages were "one of the best '60s rock acts of any sort from a non-English speaking country" and "could have passed for a genuine British band". Um, sorry, no. Most of the music on this cd isn't exactly bad, but it's not terribly good either. The songs tend to be lackluster Baroque-pop, similar to Paul McCartney's tunes on Revolver or the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle, but without the brilliance of those records. The problem seems to be that, although the arrangements are good, none of the Tages are strong songwriters, and most of the songs were written by members of the group. The best moments on this release are two excellent psychedelic numbers written by songwriters outside the group: "She Is A Man", which sounds just like the Dukes of Stratosphear (non-Swindon accents notwithstanding), and "You're Too Incomprehensible", which is what Os Mutantes would have sounded like if they weren't Brazilian.There are other obscure cds out there that are similar to this but much better. I recommend tracking down July's only album, Billy Nicholl's Would You Believe?, Blossom Toes' We Are Ever So Clean, and especially Colin Blunstone's One Year."