95. The Young Rascals - Groovin' (July 1967)

1. A Girl Like You*

2. Find Somebody*

3. I'm So Happy Now

4. Sueño

5. How Can I Be Sure

6. Groovin'*

7. If You Knew

8. I Don't Love You Anymore

9. You Better Run

10. A Place in the Sun

11. It's Love

B

You know, I'm not sure if the Young Rascals were very successful in Australia. I used to listen a lot to an oldies station specialising in music from the 50s through the 70s, I don't recall ever hearing one of their songs. Meaning that while this band were quite popular and influential, they were also completely new to me. Which is nice, in a way, as it let me come to this band free of preconceptions and take the music on its own terms.

And really, this is very good music. Nothing mind-blowing, but a delightful mix of soul, R&B, garage rock and psychedelia. I wasn't overly impressed with it at first, but I think it was the title track that won me over. Possibly because my work week starts on a Friday, so listening to this today (Thursday) I was effectively groovin' on a Sunday afternoon. I've also had a couple of glasses of Canadian Club. 

Things kick off with the wonderful, Turtlesesque "A Girl Like You", then there's the equally good "Find Somebody", which anchors a soul sound with a chiming ostinato guitar part. The Young Rascals are (at least on this album) very much an R&B/soul act, but they're also happy to augment their sound with borrowings from rock, jazz and psych. Thankfully they have the good taste to do this with a degree of subtlety and avoid burying their catchy, poignant songs under trendy new sounds. The result is an album that sounds fresh and invigorating when so many other acts of the time just seem dated. A good example of their willingness to experiment is the track "Sueño", which opens with Latin guitars before morphing into a strange sort of garage rock number, returning to the Latin guitar part when appropriate. 

The first half of the album is mostly upbeat pop numbers, but the second half is where things get looser and weirder. "Groovin'" is a beautiful, laid-back song, quite unlike anything we've had up to this point (in fact it was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fames' list of the 500 songs which shaped rock and roll). Apparently Atlantic didn't even want to release it, it was so strange. Of course now, listening to it it's just a sweet song about taking it easy, a very gentle bit of psychedelic soul. Another great song is "I Don't Love You Anymore", which is a subdued and melancholy number with a great chorus. And "It's Love" incorporates jazz flute to wonderful effect.

I don't have much to say about this album, but it's a lovely record. It's really a time capsule of a moment in pop, covering a wide variety of styles all done quite well. It's a little thin at times, production wise, and not all the songs are strong, but it's a fun listen and an intelligent and well-crafted pop album. In a lot of ways, this is the real sound of the Summer of Love.

Which, unfortunately, is not something that can be said about the next album on the List...