Trip Shakespeare - Lulu

Wrong Planet

Prog-pop personified? A plosive possibility for a compartmentalisation, and there are certainly vocal elements of the Mamas and Papas as well as the Beach Boys to fill the beautiful-pop booth – the Beatles too – and the instrumentation on songs like Your Mouth and Will You Be Found fill the prog cubicle, the second with quite complex vocal arrangements around a neatly fuzzed guitar, wonderful bass playing, and piano pieces. Male falsetto may be an acquired taste, but it works on this album, and check out the cool psychedelic guitar work on Patricia.

Their last of four albums, and released in 1991, it was obviously the wrong time for wide success being on the cusp of grunge and existing on a different musical planet called SixtiesandSeventies. Bothers Matt and Dan Wilson wrote the songs, John Munson plays those magic bass lines, and Elaine Harris is on often inspired percussion [Patricia again]. There are quirky numbers too, like the instrumental frolic that is Jill Can Drive, as well as occasionally becoming The Seekers [or is it The New Seekers?] in the mix – Look At The Moon - which isn’t wholly within my praising. But overall this is a musically lush and distinctive embracing of the pop ethic with quality writing and performance.