Soft Canyon - Broken Spirit, I Will Mend Your Wings

This 1972 treasure was buried under a hut in a Massachusetts forest, only to be found by several film students making a great movie before being brutally killed. Actually, no. This was put out like three years ago, but I swear to god it sounds like it has been in a time capsule for 30 years. I’m not talking some “sun-drenched” Brian Wilson-worshippers, or Lou-come-lately Velvets revivalists, this is just like a fantastic album that came out 30 years ago and fell behind a couch or something before being pressed.

You’ll know what I mean after the first track – you can just imagine the hair on these guys. It’s a perfect wah-wah versus fuzz amp pop song, plus maybe even a little bit of twang. Maybe even a little Guns & Roses in there? Next is the more chill “Hope’s Great Divide,” then the chunky guitar jam and flanger workout “Send me your love,” the first of the album’s unabashedly psychedelic breaks. The next comes in “Kaleidoscope Mountain” – not really a good track at first (singer sounds a little retarded, and the melody sounds like a barn stomp), but suddenly, with no provocation, it drops into this fantastic, trippy, lights-go-low-at-show coda. Then there’s a clunker track which I routinely skip, then a great classic-sounding rocker, “Sunflight,” which leads into the third psychedelic trip, after the short and frankly bizarre “I have salmon arms”(wtf). I have to warn you, some phasers may have been harmed in the making of “Rare Bird Indeed.” Then, a quick, clean pluck-and-strummer before the obligatory big album ender. “We threw our love into the universe” promises a little more than it gives – you want it to be “Echoes” but it’s not nearly long enough, though it is great. It’s a great, slow-burn track for a while but you know it’s going to blow up, and it does. After the second chorus, just before the 4-minute mark, you need to turn your speakers up real loud, because the filthiest solo on the album hits. It’s actually pretty short, but I do not kid you when I say that the first time I heard it I nearly fell out of my chair. Turn it up, its better that way.

Now, the real point of this recommendation is not that this album is supremely good, although it is exceptional. The point I want to make is that literally everyone likes this album. I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t liked it. It’s not sort of a so-good-you-can’t-help-it thing like OK Computer, but more of a it’s-just-straight-up-good thing. It’s catchy, accessible, and yet at the same time utterly obscure and occasionally bizarre! The perfect find! Honestly though, here is an album which almost literally no one has heard of, even among obscure music fans like myself, and yet which even a devoted J-Lo fan can enjoy easily. If you don’t like it let me know, and leave your address.

Here's "For You," by Soft Canyon, forrrrrrrr yoooooou!

Comments

[ugg sko]

Very good blog post that covers a very interesting study. I was born left handed, but hit the end of the public school era where they trained you to be right handed – maybe that’s why my studies shot ahead of other students when I was young. I’ve heard this before, but didn’t have any sources to back it up. Thanks for the links to help my study of this interesting topic!