Sonny Bono - Inner Views [Expanded]

All Music Guide

One of the strangest and undeservedly obscure pop-psychedelic albums of the 1960s got even better with the release of this expanded reissue. Clocking in at over 60 minutes of music, the Rhino Handmade CD edition contains not only a flawless transfer of the original Atco Inner Views LP, but also 11 additional tracks, among them the Sonny Bono singles "Laugh at Me" and "The Revolution Kind," the single edits of four of the five songs off the original LP (one of which, "Pammie's on a Bummer," is an improvement as a shorter pop record), and various odd B-sides, a pair of unreleased single sides ("Misty Roses" and "Cheryl's Goin' Home"), plus the backing tracks to "Pammie's on a Bummer." The sound, coupled with its beat and the arrangement, makes "I Just Sit There" about as intense a listening experience as "Goin' Home" by the Rolling Stones, and a better record than Iron Butterfly's "In a Gadda Da Vida," while the rest has never seemed more inviting. The bonus tracks add a more folk-rock a...nd pop (and pop-psychedelic) element to the mix of sounds, but those fit in well with the original. The packaging is done up just right, too, with superb essays by Ward Lamb and Serene Dominic and an excellent track-by-track analysis by Harry Young. Available only online as of 2001, in a limited edition, and worth every cent and then some -- EMI should only treat the Beatles' records this well. - Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Read more Less