In 2020, the first volume of
Bubblerock Is Here to Stay arrived, a tremendous collection of British pop from the early '70s. The four hours of music on the compilation highlighted a particular wave of British music trends, exploring a time when the popularity of harder, heavier album rock was skyrocketing, but many artists were still looking to the traditions of bubblegum, sugary melodicism, and generally lighter musical fare in hopes of scoring a radio hit. The compilation illuminated how the songs that failed at breaking through commercially were every bit as interesting as those that succeeded, if not more so.
Bubblerock Is Here to Stay, Vol. 2: The British Pop Explosion 1970-1973 continues the strange journey that the first volume began, digging up 79 more songs from that very specific era, with some memorable moments, some curious oddities, some outright absurdities, and an overabundance of pop delights.
The Tremeloes, perhaps best remembered for their version of "Here Comes My Baby," contribute the psychedelically metallic "Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham," a tune that pushes
Beatles vocal harmonies through a biker rock filter. Glam rockers
Slade and
the Sweet make appearances, as do soul-pop act Main Attraction, feel-good anthem makers
Brotherhood of Man, and bubblegum shapeshifters
White Plains with an especially out-there cut called "Dad You Saved the World." As with
Volume One, the playlist gets more interesting as the songs get weirder. Though it was technically a hit, there are not many charting singles as bizarre as
the Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding," a strange experiment in vaudeville songcraft with relentless falsetto vocals in one speaker and a grumbling narrator in the other.
Lieutenant Pigeon come close to that same level of strangeness with their off-kilter march "Mouldy Old Dough," however. Other notable moments in the lengthy track listing include Bruce Spelman's lighthearted fuzz guitar tribute to the end of the world, "29 Years to Doomsday,"
the Paper Dolls' raved-up take on girl group classic "My Boyfriend's Back," and an uncomfortably perky version of
the Grateful Dead's "Uncle John's Band" by
the Montanas. These tracks and dozens more continue to scratch the surface of an era that was in-between identities and sound, with some delightfully fun and freakish sounds rising out of that scattered time. ~ Fred Thomas