Sir Army Suit was
Klaatu's attempt to make an album of straight pop songs and recover from the sophomore slump of
Hope. There are some nifty pop numbers here, but the record received virtually no airplay, critics gave it a lukewarm response, and the group plunged further into obscurity. Once
the Beatles rumor died, it appeared nobody wanted to accept
Klaatu as
Klaatu. In truth, the threesome still had difficulty establishing a sound and identity of their own, which wasn't helped by their continued anonymity (again, no photos or credits). The songs themselves hopped from '60s pop to heavy metal. On the most successful songs (the '60s pop), the titles are a giveaway: "A Routine Day," "Dear Christine," and "Tokeymore Field" can be heard as either glittering retro-pop at best, or at worst an unabashed plagiarism of the British Invasion. Top honor, though, must go to "Juicy Lucy," an exuberant splash of horn-inflected disco that at least brought them close to their own musical time and place. ~ Peter Kurtz