Philwit & Pegasus is an epic in search of a narrative or gripping theme, not to mention decent pop songs. The quite detailed and lengthy historical liner notes on the CD reissue of this rarity give the impression that principal creator
Mark Wirtz thought he was devising an arty song cycle of sorts, or a movie on record. What it sounds like, however, is a collection of fairly unrelated unexceptional pop songs, decorated by occasionally ambitious grandiose instrumentation that sometimes puts it as close to easy listening as to pop/rock. The influence of the most Baroque elements of
the Beach Boys and late-'60s California sunshine pop can be felt at times (particularly on "My What a Lovely Day It's Been"), as can (on "Yoyo Thoughts") early mellow laid-back L.A. country-folk-rock. Then, however, you get to "And I Try," which sounds like an even more overwrought
Tom Jones tackling an MOR ballad. It's an odd and not especially tasty mixture. [The 2003 CD reissue on RPM adds four bonus tracks, two of those being the non-LP single "Elephant Song"/"Pseudo Phoney Mixed Up Croney," which boast a far brittler eccentric pop/rock sound than the album, jumbling bubblegum, psychedelic, and pre-glam rock stomp. The other two bonus tracks, "Mr. Sun King" and "Avalon," are far more in the style of the gentler cuts on the
Philwit & Pegasus album, "Mr. Sun King" sounding a little like a pop parody of the most subdued material
John Lennon wrote at the end of the 1960s.] ~ Richie Unterberger