Psych Britannia - Strange Daze

It's a jolly good opening to the album with the title track "Kaleidoscope", a jolly-sounding 2-minute burst of Sunshine-Pop that's positively bounding along with joyous optimism. It's a good all-round late-1960's Pop tune with a bright and sunny disposition, where all the birds are singing and the fluorescent flowers are blooming in the psychedelic garden of earthly delights. The curiously-titled "Please Excuse My Face" follows next. It's a gorgeous acoustic guitar arrangement where the lovelorn singer is in full romantic balladeer mode and pining away forlornly over his lost love. This beautiful ballad sounds as charmingly English as afternoon tea and crumpets whilst watching a game of cricket on the village green. Howzat! We're taking a psychedelic trip back in time now as we "Dive Into Yesterday", a song that's awash with colourful acid-tinged guitar vibes. It's a catchy tune that's very reminiscent of the Beatles at their most psychedelic, with influences from the West Coast sound of sunny California. This joyfully sunny music sounds as bright and bubbly as a glass of sparkling lemonade. And now we come to the curious tale of "Mr. Small, The Watch Repairer Man", the kind of cheerfully light-hearted Pop song that could only come from England in the late 1960's. It's a carefree and playful little number that doesn't take itself too seriously and it's representative of the Best of British Psychedelic Pop. We're travelling to distant foreign lands now with "Flight from Ashiya", only this appears to be a doomed flight as the constant refrain in this song is "Nobody Knows Where We Are" ..... Oh dear! It seems that despite the pleasant sunshine sound of this jangling and exotic Byrds-like psychedelia, the flight has gone down in the middle of nowhere. The dark mood continues with "The Murder Of Lewis Tollani", which closes Side One on a sombre note, although don't get too down-hearted because it's really a great Sunshine Pop song despite the solemn message in the lyrics.

The strangely-titled "(Further Reflections) In The Room Of Percussion" opens Side Two. It's a typically cheerful 1960's Pop tune but who knows what the song's about as the convoluted lyrics are like a riddle wrapped inside an enigma on a psychedelic acid trip. One thing's for sure, "In the Room of Percussion" is nothing to do with a drummer doing a sound-check in the recording studio. We're meeting the charming "Dear Nellie Goodrich" next, which turns out to be a short but sweet jingly- jangly sunshine burst of lovely English Pop music, featuring some delightful sugar-coated harmonising. This very agreeable tune is as sweet as a jar of honey. It's time to pack our bags now because we're off to the seaside for "Holidaymaker", a happy- go-lucky Pop song that's just as bright and sunny as the song title implies. Don't forget to pack the suntan lotion because this summer song is positively bursting with sunshine. We're in the King's court for "A Lesson Perhaps", although he's not a progressive Crimson King. No, this is a traditional Folky King in a quaint pastoral setting. This gentle melodic madrigal represents a charming acoustic spoken-word diversion in an album that's positively glowing and overflowing with radiantly cheerful Pop songs. And now we arrive at the magnificent highlight of the album, "The Sky Children", in a classic example of saving the best song till last. This marvellous closing song has instantly transformed what could have been a very good four-star album into a five-star masterpiece. It's eight minutes of pure unadulterated pleasure. The music is similar in style to the Byrds classic "Eight Miles High" - only better! The "Poptastic" lyrics are simply sensational. Take a look for yourselves:- "A million white flowers in a field in the sky, Seemed to spell out a greeting as the children flew by, A guard in a chariot of silver and gold, Gave the children all tickets, then the story he told, Of a time in the future that was sunshine and flowers, And the children grew sleepy in the sky's white towers, They dreamed of the story that the guard had displayed, They saw all the wonders, tiny minds were amazed, They saw candy forests and dragons that breathed fire, On all that was evil in the misty mire." ..... And that's just the first verse! There are six more incredible verses to come!! This beautiful music does indeed sound like "A million white flowers in a field in the sky." It's heavenly!

Travel back in time to the flower-power sounds of the late-1960's Summer of Love with this charmingly English album of glorious Sunshine Pop songs that's positively overflowing with cheerful exuberance and ebullient optimism. It's a Psychedelic Kaleidoscope of glowing rainbow colours wrapped inside a beautiful Tangerine Dream!

We're taking off and flying on the "Wings of Love" for our opening number. This delightful and unashamedly twee-sounding Pop tune could only have come from England in the late-1960's. The story concerns our hero schoolboy, Simon Simopath, who dreams of sprouting wings so he can fly away - just like Peter Pan - and escape being bullied at school. He later suffers a mental breakdown in adulthood and ends up in a lunatic asylum, but escapes after getting aboard a rocket and meeting a centaur and a goddess who take care of him in a place called Pentecost Hotel, where they presumably live happily ever after in a state of heavenly bliss and spiritual Nirvana. Yes, the Story of Simon Simopath really IS that wacky, and yes, you've guessed it, it's a proggy concept album before prog-rock or concept albums had even been invented. Simon Simopath is just a lonely boy at heart, and "Lonely Boy" is the title of the second song where all he wants to do is cry. The mournful lyrics might tell a sad tale, but the music is bright and uplifting as it romps merrily along on a wave of joyous hope and exuberance. There's a rousing chorus too in this lively Pop song, so it's not all doom and gloom, despite the lyrics. There's a healthy burst of optimism on the way with "We Can Help You", a bright and sparkling burst of golden Sunshine Pop which sounds as quaint and quintessentially English as a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds, or a game of croquet served with tea and crumpets on an English summer lawn. We have lift-off, because next up is the bizarrely-titled "Satellite Jockey", the most commercially appealing song on the album, which could potentially have gone into orbit and risen up into the Top 10 of the Hit Parade, back in the days when the chart placings still mattered to Pop pickers. Space: the final frontier. We're "In the Courtyard of the Stars" now for this out-of-this-world 1960's sci-fi Pop hokum. It's Proto-Prog, Jim, but not as we know it. This is a lovely jazzy Pop tune that's light years away from classic 1970's Prog-Rock.

Our silly but charming story continues with "You Are Just the One", another pleasant Psych-Pop diversion in an album full of sparkling good Pop tunes, and there's a gorgeous Baroque Pop song on the way with "Pentecost Hotel", a magnificently ornate grand hotel featuring a lush string symphony. We're getting all romantic now with "I Never Had a Dream Like This Before", a lilting piano ballad with rich orchestration, where Simon Simopath dreams of being carried away to distant parts of the universe, or failing that, watching the latest episode of Star Trek. Beam me up another great Pop song, Scotty! There's the sound of wedding bells in the air for "Take This Hand", as Simon Simopath prepares for his betrothal to his loved one, so it looks like we're headed for a happy ending to our story with this gentle Folk Pop refrain. There's a complete change of musical style for the final uplifting song "Nirvana", which sounds like a good old-fashioned knees-up in a pub. It's a Dixie-land-jazz-style number, featuring a honky-tonk piano and with the singer sounding in a merry and jubilant mood, which indeed he would be if he just got hitched to his romantic love interest. All's well that ends well in the weird and wonderful world of wacky 1960's concept albums.

This cheerfully zany slice of sixties sci-fi hokum is a Psych-Pop album that's in another universe altogether from Prog-Rock, and it's barely even Proto-Prog, but if you're in the mood for some jolly good English Pop tunes from the Beatles' era, then "The Story of Simon Simopath" might just be the album for you. The twee music is joyful and exuberant with a bright message of hope for the future, but if you hope to attain a state of spiritual Nirvana from listening to this album, then it's best to look elsewhere - back to the future of the proggy 1970's perhaps.