Associate with the Association on their main page! And Then...Along Comes.............................. Overall Album Score: 8.3 out of 10 These are good guys. I'm not claiming that I know this group personally. I don't even know the names of anyone in the band right now, but I can tell they're good people through the music. It's unfortunate that they're so plagued with a lack of melodic inventiveness, which is rightfully considered the most important quality when it comes to writing pop-rock such as this. But this is one of those cases where their inventiveness in other areas (namely, instrumentation) make up for a lot of that. Plus, this music is sooooooooooooooooooooooo likable. You've got to feel good about a pop song like "Enter the Young." It starts out very pleasantly with a mildly catchy tune, but the song slowly grows more and more passionate by the very end. See, if they just wanted to write pop hits for money, they would have been quite happy with keeping the same old mood. It wouldn't have been a bad song if they only did that come to think of it! As I have often been commenting lately, you can tell a lot about an artist by how they end their songs. Well, they nail that one. So, they're real artists and have passion. They're just not that talented. Pity! Sure, the 'passion' is limited on quite a few of these tracks. Specifically, when the instrumental inventivenes isn't as compelling, their work tends to suffer. Look at what happens on that snoozefest called "Remember." Let's just say it doesn't quite live up to its title. The biggest hit these guys came up with is "Cherish," and I also would like to call that my favorite song on the album. The atmosphere they create is *golden*, and that's precisely why the song continues to get good play today. It very much deserves distinction as one of the characteristic tunes of the '60s. Another great song of the album is "Along Came Mary" and I also want to call that song the best of the album! The groove they come up with is fantastic. That's a fun song. You can tell by my tone of this review that I loved this album, but it did have those unfortunate and unignorable flaws. Well, it's so difficult to hate musicians who care about their craft and want to put a smile on your face while doing it! Overall Album Score: 8.3 out of 10 (A charmer that's plagued by an almost universal lack of melody.) Average Song Score: 8.3 (More than its fair share of treasures among some less inspired ones.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (Rather uneven, but it's so charming that this album is too good of an experience to deny.) Artistic Rating: 8.0 (They're not good at all with the melodies I hate to say, but they are pretty inventive when it comes to instrumentation. Much of what they do instrumentation wise makes their songs MUCH more interesting than they would have otherwise.) Track Reviews Enter the Young 10/10 Now, these guys can play a great pop song. Seems exactly like it belongs in that aftermath of Rubber Soul (which is no coincidence, 'cause it was). The melody is pretty nice here although not with deathly hooks. That said, it's probably the album's second finest melodic example. What's important is they're making my day bright (which is amazing, because it's about nine minutes 'till midnight). The fact they get more passionate and louder by the end proves what nice guys they were. They care about their music! Yay! Your Own Love 9/10 The bouncy pop song! You almost detect a sitar playing around, but I really just think that's an acoustic guitar being plucked in a low register. (They're going to be comparable to the Beatles no matter what they do.) OK, the melody lacks here but they make up for it with the creativity and the 'moods.' They bring in a pretty fun bongo drum and there's a neat little explosion at the end. Yay! Don't Blame it On Me 8.5/10 The harmonies are Beach Boys here as they bring in a ballad. The melody really is pretty awful when it comes down to it. The creativity in the instrumentation wins me over. The vocal "Bah-bahs" add to the aesthetics and rhythm too. The jangly instrumentation and the pleasantly played guitar contributes to the good feeling. Despite their melodic shortcomings these guys really have their fingers on their songs' pulse. Blistered 7.5/10 Less inspired to me ... Again, the melody is *hmhmhhm* and the instrumentation isn't nearly as clever. This is more of a driving rocker (with a constant hand clap). It's also a lot more flooded than the other songs and for some reason that doesn't positively contribute to the mood. The song's ending seemed a bit sudden too. The spirit of this manages to help it. It's hard to hate it. I'll Be Your Man 7/10 Nothing too original here and we're left with a fairly bland melody. The melody is pretty complex, but it's missing those hooks! The instrumentation is fine, but the crassness is missing. HHhm. Along Comes Mary 10/10 OoooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooooOOooooooooooooOOOOoooo! Here's some tastiness. The groove they come up with that tuba is too easy to fall in love with. Who needs women? The song has a mood that is instantly drawing. A charmingly '60s flute comes in and delivers a little solo. The melody is another story ... they do seem to be singing the same note an awful lot of times. But they're completely convincing. Cherish 10/10 This song is better than breakfast! This is the most instantly recognizable hit of the album (to me anyway). As far as hooky melodies go, they run across a few good ones. OK, I suspect that it was accidential and just because of the chord progression, but let's forget about that now. Again, they really manage to nail the mood of this one. The pleasantly placid drumming and those characteristic "bum-bum's" with a bell lend the song a very sweet atmosphere. They also get pretty damn convincing with their Beach Boys harmonic imitations in the middle of this. This is a great song and easily the best of the album. I don't say that without reservations, though. Standing Still 8/10 Yeah, standing still. These guys are so dang dependent on those moods that when they don't run across such a compelling one, their song suffers a bit. (Naturally, if they had a catchy melody to being with we wouldn't be talking about this, hmmm??) Well it's a good natured song at least. Message of Our Love 7/10 Getting in Beach Boys ballad territory here ... kind of pale when you think of how awesome the Beach Boys are at this type of song. They try to tap into that heavenly vibe, but they didn't quite make it. It's like they're in harmonic purgatory and nobody's praying them out! The result is a fairly boring song ... but at least some of the instrumentation was pretty nice. The goofy space age sound-effects (that seems to have been produced by some sort of synthesizer) don't actually add anything constructive to the track, but they are pretty damn interesting considering the year this came out. Round Again 8.5/10 They say the word 'groovy.' HAHHAH!!! I LAUGH AT YOU!! YOU'RE FROM THE '60s!!!!!!!! Anyway, the melody is more involved and the instrumentation is absolutely adorable. The song starts with some piddly dorkiness (but effective) and the drum is happily upbeat. There's some sort of explosion at the end as some circus music pipes up. Hm!! Remember 6.5/10 Testing my patients again. The song is very slow and boring, and they don't do anything with the melody to help ..... so ... hm. The thump-thump of a timpani-like and some twinkly bells help lend to the atmosphere, but even then it's still pretty dull. Funny, I turned up the volume on this in the middle of it during a listen, and it seemed like a great effect ... well ... Maybe I should be a sound engineer! Changes 8/10 Ch-ch-ch-ch- ... No, it's not the David Bowie song! It's the Association song! It's a more upbeat and percussion heavy song, which usually seems to benefit this group. (Not that that's a surprise ....) The melody continues to be pretty bland. But the song at least has good development. It begins dull more or less, but there's an exciting 'interlude' of sorts, and then a classical inspired electric guitar solo. I really don't think this is a great song, but it's pretty fun. Oh, how I long to hear about your comments here.

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. Water is the root of all root beer.