What one feels about this 27-song CD will depend entirely upon one's tolerance for soft rock and bubblegum pop.
Pickettywitch were huge in England for about two years, and remain one of the more fondly remembered pop/rock groups of their period, mostly by virtue of singer Polly Browne, who has maintained a fandom for 30 years. The sound is soft rock in a modified group context, similar to the kind of music generated by the
Partridge Family,
the Cowsills, and, on a two-dimensional level,
the Archies in America, slick and smooth, catchy and unthreatening; their version of
Paul Simon's "Sound of Silence" is something akin to what the
New Seekers' rendition might've been like, while "Days I Remember," which came close to charting in America, is akin to
the Carpenters trying their hand at blue-eyed soul. It's all rather pretty, for all of its relative wimpiness, and difficult to dislike on that basis -- "Solomon Grundy," the B-side that launched their public success, is one of those tunes that was meant for radio airplay two or three times daily, and the title track, a top-five U.K. hit, is a breezy piece of romantic soft rock. Occasionally, an element of very, very pop-oriented soul creeps through, as on the B-side "Maybe We've Been Loving Too Long," which also offers a brief guitar solo by Martin Bridges. Starting with "(It's Like A) Sad Old Kinda Movie,"
Pickettywitch acquires a much more produced sound, with light orchestral backing and less of a group sound. It's all very pleasant and unchallenging, somewhere between, say,
Paper Lace and the Captain & Tennille, mastered in excellent quality with beautiful photographs and extensive recollections by Browne, who seems more amazed than anybody about how long her name, voice, and music have remained known to the British public. The only drawback is the price, which is very hefty, in keeping with the CD's Japanese import origins. ~ Bruce Eder