After being regarded as “one of the best loved psychedelic albums of all time”, it was about time for a proper re-issue of this one to see the light of day too.
As with my own bootleg version (not sure about the others) lacking The Drag Set single, from the time before they “opened their minds”, with it’s inclusion over here we get the most definite collection of The Open Mind’s released output.
Before turning from “nondescript dandies” to leather outfit-ed swinging London scenesters, they delivered an equally great piece of freakbeat in the shape of Day And Night, gracing the A-side of the above mentioned single, which later on evolved from it’s initial Beck-era Yardbirds sound to an even freakier, Misunderstood-like workout, included on the long-playing release, re-titled as Girl I’m So Alone.
Two more album tracks, Thor The Thunder God and Soul And My Will, also don’t fall too far from the same Yardbirds Beck-lash, while the opening pair finds them hitting the snappy mod target, recalling some other boys about town, such as the early Who in Dear Louise or The Creation in Try Another Day.
While it’s with the following I Feel The Same Way Too that an acid drop or two start popin’ up within a bit heavier, Cream-y musical “attack”, most audible, of course, in their non-album magnum opus, Magic Potion, as well as in Before My Time, Free As The Breeze or Falling Again etc, and just to make sure and justify the actual Britsike tag in a more conventional way, there’s also Horses And Chariots.
If you haven’t already, it’s about time for you to open your own mind too … and whatever else is needed, will follow.
[Released by Sunbeam 2006]
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