A decent if somewhat candy-coated effort in the pop-psychedelic vein, combining cheerful sunshine pop sensibilities with some hard-edged psychedelic playing. It all falls somewhere between
the Beatles'
Revolver album and
the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle (the latter especially on "Man Do You" and "Raven"), with some
Sgt. Pepper-type layered choruses and overdubbed strings and other instruments. The question is how well it represents the sound of
the Paper Garden -- and that begs the larger question behind the purpose of recording an LP;
The Paper Garden dates from a period when the answer to that question was starting to change. According to the account of singer/guitarist Joe Arduino, the New York City-based quintet had a solid stage repertory established from performances at colleges in the Northeastern United States in 1967 and 1968, when they got the chance to cut this album under the auspices of British producer Geoff Turner, who was working at Musicor in New York at the time -- presented with that opportunity, the members ended up writing a whole new body of songs for the occasion; thus, the album become a new, self-contained artistic statement rather than a representation of the music by which they'd first attracted attention and defined themselves. The songs are filled with catchy tunes played on a mix of virtuoso electric lead and acoustic guitars -- with the occasional sitar, courtesy of rhythm guitarist Sandy Napoli -- and violin, string orchestra, trumpet, and trombone embellishment, and the lead singing coming down somewhere between
Paul McCartney and
Colin Blunstone with the backing usually very
Lennon-esque. The group had three talented songwriters in their ranks whose work was worth hearing and the 27-minute running time isn't even a problem -- the content is substantial enough to make this a nicely full sonic meal and one of the most enjoyable albums of the psychedelic era. The 2002 Gear Fab CD reissue offers glittering sound and includes full annotation and credits, and is recommended to those who enjoy
the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle album, or
the Merry-Go-Round/
Emitt Rhodes' releases. ~ Richie Unterberger & Bruce Eder