Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera

All Music Guide

What goes around, comes around, and now the Akarma label brings us full circle with the reissue of Elmer Gantry the Velvet Opera's 1967 eponymous album. Although labeled a psychedelic band in their day, the Opera never sat comfortably in that strawberry field, partially because of the diversity of their sound, but also due to the simple fact they were just too far ahead of their time even for the psychedout crowd. In fact, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera today sounds thoroughly modern, while their myriad musical meanderings take them down wayward byways that are now stylistic highways at least in their native U.K.. So it's no surprise then, that this band would have slotted perfectly into the Britpop scene, or going back further in time, into the RBdrenched mod scene. The Opera's admiration for RB is evident on "Intro," an homage to Archie Bell the Drells, while their equal respect for bluesy jazz is showcased on a fabulous cover of Oscar Brown's "I Was Cool" which absolutely smokes. "F...lames," in contrast, fires the band straight into rockabilly, and boasts a thumping intro bassline that, coincidentally enough, will also storm through the Jam's "Town Called Malice." So where's the psychedelia? Well "Air" languidly drifts on sitars across India, but it's heard most magnificently on the instrumental freakout "Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey." The rest of the 13song set, in contrast, slides into gentler, harmony drenched numbers reminiscent of the Kinks, early Small Faces, and of course the Beatles. It's a magnificent album, but the reissue doesn't end there, appending the Opera's trio of singles released between 1967 and 1969. Thus we find the 45 rpm versions of "Flames" and "Mary Jane," as well as the driving nonalbum "Volcano," accompanied by their Bsides. It's a welcome return for a seminal album, and makes it all the harder to believe Gantry himself would later turn up in 1975 fronting onehit U.K. wonders Stretch, while the Opera's rhythm section itself would resurface in the Strawbs. [This version of the album includes bonus material.] - JoAnn Greene, All Music Guide Read more Less