Blossom Toes existed for a brief window in the late '60s, transitioning quickly from an R&B/beat band called
the Ingoes to embrace Baroque instrumentation and vivid, cheery psychedelia on their 1967 debut
We Are Ever So Clean. Released just four months after
the Beatles' world-shaking and similarly toned
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and weeks before
The Who Sell Out, the album lived in the shadows of bigger musical events, and
Blossom Toes lingered briefly in obscurity before disbanding in 1969. After a few decades passed, however, the band, and their debut album in particular, began to take on a more clearly defined importance in the bigger picture of '60s psychedelia. The bright, curious melodies of tracks like "What on Earth" are cut from a similar cloth as material
the Kinks and
the Pretty Things were releasing at the same time, but are filled out with an overabundance of brass, strings, and theatrical orchestral elements. "What's It For?" feels like a happier, more thoughtful cousin of
the Who, and songs like this and "The Remarkable Saga of the Frozen Dog" or "The Intrepid Balloonist's Handbook, Vol. 1" carry the same charming British sense of absurdist humor as
Bonzo Dog Band.
Blossom Toes' song structures are unconventional, often including several sections that would most likely be cut from the average '60s pop song. Even so, they never get assertive enough to reach prog territory, keeping a mild and approachable demeanor with light vocal harmonies and bounding bass grooves on "When the Alarm Clock Rings" and getting into backwards guitar solos and paisley-colored dissonance on rocking standout "Look at Me I'm You" without losing their friendly melodic sensibilities. Childlike tunes like "People of the Royal Parks" indulge in all-out chamber twee.
We Are Ever So Clean bears many of the hallmarks of better-known albums from its time, with its various pieces recalling everything from the soaring joy of
the Idle Race and the happy-go-lucky mod pop of
Small Faces to all of the previously mentioned bands. Despite these clear similarities, the thread of genuine excitement and naive positivity that runs throughout
We Are Ever So Clean keeps the album from feeling like the result of
Blossom Toes merely following the trends of their time. There's barely a trace of darkness or anxiety in these wide-ranging songs, putting the album in a rare class of well-adjusted psychedelia, a good trip with no painful comedown. ~ Fred Thomas