Speaking of The NOW People, I’m no less than two years late with this. But hey, it’s better NOW than never, eh? If you’re at least half familiar with contemporary re-issues of what’s these days being tagged as “’60s sunshine harmony pop”, the name of Steve Stanley will certainly ring a bell … ALOUD!
Not unlike fellow pop-archivist Andrew Sandoval, doing so many researches throughout the years, he seems to have learned the craft pretty well himself. The debut album by his own band could easily be mistaken for another volume of a Soft Sounds-type of a comp, or even for an unearthed Boettcher-related long lost shoulda-been classic of the genre.
My own faves are the jazzy trackarach A New Life For Us, the offbeat popsike pair of Find A Way and My Luck Ran Out, and funnily enough, Old And Gray/A Little Brighter, an old-timey Vaudeville ditty, by way of The Charlatans (US). Add to all this an all-star line up of L.A.’s pop elite, that almost coincides with Brian Wilson’s backing band (including all of the Wondermints in one way or another), and you’ll get a pretty clear idea of what this is all about …
Oh, and I suppose by then the cover of Roger Nichols’ Trust will have sounded perfectly natural.
[Released by Bird Song Recordings 2006]
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