With a common love of 60’s pop and early psychedelia, Ideal Free Distribution has released “Then We Were Older” and it sounds like a lost classic from that era, right down to the last detail. The strong influences from The Pretty Things, Zombies, Moody Blues and The Yardbirds are all over every track here. You know you’re doing something right when Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo happily joins in to mix the album. Opening with “Cold Wind Blows” it gets the mojo early on, pulling every sonic trick out of the hat including dreamy vocal harmonies and fuzz guitar. “Something I Know” then goes in a vintage Kinks mode with Tony Miller’s sad vocal and slow shuffle. “Carol Anne” then goes into a jam closer to Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd, with a dense layer of instrumental goodness. “Turn To Find You” adds a bit of Radiohead vocal angst to the mix and makes it one of the few songs here that isn’t rooted to the psychedelic sound. A great tune here is “William Buss” with its hand clapping go-go beat, organ intro and hook filled melody, it’s the poppiest of the songs here. The Powerpopaholic has a link to an authorized MP3 download below. “Trip Inside” and “Strawberry Crush” are rich psych-pop that has lush sonic landscapes that will carry you off to hookah dreams. It takes a garage nugget turn on “Anne Maria” with blaring guitars and roaring vocals similar to The Creation. Throughout the album the textures of the song often overtake the melody. And that’s the problem here – as wonderful the atmosphere is, the melody is often of secondary importance, especially in the album’s second half. Some fans of this genre will not mind it a bit. In fact, fans of Olivia Tremor Control and The Pillbugs would welcome this into their music collection with open ears. Turn on and tune out with your headphones, man.

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DOWNLOAD “William Buss” here
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FYI: The poll on the top 200 power pop albums of all time is here. You can probably shuffle them around a bit, but I would have pulled up a few that were lower in rank, like Pugwash (#189), You Am I (#181) and The Dukes of The Stratosphere (#141). In any case, this is a great primer for those just getting into the genre.

Higgins does a pretty credible job of mining the Emitt Rhodes/Beatles/High Llamas sound and then twisting it around so it no longer resembles a retro one trick pony. Lead singer Kevin Fish has a vocal timbre that recalls both Andy Partridge and Ray Davies at once. The Opener “There He Is” sounds like it fell off of Badfinger’s “No Dice” with it’s warmly laid down harmonies and memorable laid back riffs. “Always Something” then mixes a few other influences here, like a Kinks ballad, a lamented Fish intones “There is always something to keep someone from loving me.” Using bits of McCartney-styled piano flourishes in “Wall of Dumb” it also evokes the Bearnaked Ladies self-effacing humor in a gentle baroque way. “Jamy” uses its horns and banjo in that subtle Beach Boys nod with lazy sounding percussion section that ends the song off like it was played by a group of stoned musicians. Up to this point, Higgins does it’s best to keep the sound intimate, and that’s when it’s pure pop master stroke is revealed in “Yes I Know” with it’s XTC styled dualing guitar parts, and multi-part harmonies. It dials down to a sentimental violin lead in “Write it Down” – one thing for sure, this album is not predictable at all, because it drives off the Prog Rock cliff with a psyche-pop drum solo in “Prelude To Charly” and then the trippy “Charly” with it’s meaty riffs and wild bass lead melody. Mixing all these dramatic elements is the last song “Everybody (Thunder Mountain)”  and like the ending of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” I half expected to hear “I buried Paul” buried somewhere…  Overall this is a very special album, that will please retro pop enthusiasts, like a puzzle box of influences that requires multiple listens to appreciate fully.

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Just listen to “Everybody (Thunder Mountain)”