The Paisleys' sole album is period, late-'60s psychedelia, the kind that's not bad when you listen to it once in the background, but is hard to recall with any specific detail after it's been shelved. More based around relatively light electronic keyboards than many other similar records of the era, the songs are heavily colored by naïvely cosmic lyrics whose sentiments are easier to admire than they are to hear verbalized. A bit of irreverence pokes through in the Lothar & the Hand People-like phasing/electronic squiggle effects of "Now" and the
Bo Diddley beat and simulated orgasmic squeals of "Diddley," though the harpsichord-textured "Wind" is a half-decent journey into the more ponderous, droning side of the psychedelic experience. The short songs on side one work much better than the 18-minute "Musical Journey" opus that takes up all of side two, including a pit stop for a mock baseball broadcast. [The 2003 CD reissue on Sundazed adds six bonus tracks, all but one of them previously unreleased, from 1968-1970 demos, outtakes, and live recordings. Of these, the seven-minute medley of "Comin' On"/ "City of Light"/"Home Again," an outtake from
Cosmic Mind at Play, might have actually been one of the better numbers on the LP had it been included. The live "The Fool With the Jewel" and the three demos are all from 1968 and are a just a little lighter and poppier than the album material, particularly the acoustic "Step Quietly and Quickly," though the lyrics of songs like "In Dreams" and the
Dylan-influenced "Elf in a Magic Bottle" are just as overreaching in their new-dimension exploration.] ~ Richie Unterberger