SKALDY

From what I understand SKALDOWIE from Poland released this album in Russia only in 1973. The album cover is all in Russian print leaving a non-Russian clueless to who the band was. Keep in mind the original cover art was not the photo of the band seen on a later version and shown on this site, but a psychedelic looking painting. We get three tracks from their incredible "Krywan, Krywan" album from the year before plus one from their sophomore album from 1968. I believe the two opening tracks were created for this recording as they use some Russian lyrics on these two songs besides the Polish ones.

Besides the songs from the "Krywan, Krywan" album which are songs three, four and seven I can't say I'm a big fan of the rest of this album. I guess they wanted to give the Russians some commercial sounding music in the poppy vein but then they included the side long track from "Krywan, Krywan" to end it. The opener is a catchy piano and vocal driven tune. I like the guitar a minute in and later but the vocals are corny to end it. The second track is uptempo with vocals and again very poppy. We do get a violin interlude before 1 1/2 minutes before vocal melodies with drums and bass takes over. Contrasts continue.

The third and fourth tracks I reviewed when I talked about the "Krywan, Krywan" album but that fifth song is one I just can't get into because of the very similar sounding BEACH BOYS harmonies and vocals. Just not a fan. The sixth song from 1968 is the worse one on here. Such a sappy commercial sounding piece but at least it's only 2 1/2 minutes long. The closer is the side long track from "Krywan, Krywan" and here they extend it to almost 22 minutes. It's quite the ride and while I'm so glad they included it, it doesn't save this record from being a 3 star album for me though. Just too much Pop.