Strawberry Alarm Clock - Strawberries Mean Love

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Music reviews of Strawberries Mean Love

Music Review: The Sweet, Rubicund Pith Of The Strawberry Alarm Clock
Rating: 5 Stars

I recall purchasing "The Best Of The Strawberry Alarm Clock" on vinyl, over thirty years ago and was titillated by the way they could literally inject florid images into my mind with their lilting pop tone poems and more frenetic rock songs. It was a transforming rush, because their tone colour, often accented by Indian and Oriental incantations, made me feel that I was, for the moment, somewhere else. The Strawberry Alarm Clock accomplished this by exploiting the full potentiality of their instrumental and vocal arsenal, i.e., harpsichords conveyed rain, xylophones depicted fire, sung harmonies evoked speculation, etc. The themes of their tunes covered a munificent gamut, from the effects of LSD to the future of mankind. Many of their contemporaries tinkered, unsuccessfully, for years to euphoniously achieve that bewitching mood which was the Strawberry Alarm Clock's. After all, this is what psychedelic music, the genre inaugurated by the Byrds on "Eight Miles High," was all about: seeing sounds and hearing colours.

In the past few years I bought all of the Strawberry Alarm Clock compilations available on CD, including the album I am here reviewing, "Strawberries Mean Love," from 1992 (although I first got the vinyl version of same from 1987, in the late '80s, which had eight fewer works), as well as the "Anthology" and "Incense & Peppermints" hits package. "Strawberries Mean Love" is the most generous offering of the three. It features twenty-one cuts, three more than "Anthology" and containing every song on said, save for the lovely "Blues For A Young Girl Gone" and the introspective "Black Butter-Past" and "Black Butter-Future." It includes, as well, every piece but two--the "Good Morning Starshine" cover and the rousing "Starting Out The Day"--from the ten track "Incense & Peppermints" collection. Even owning all three of the aforementioned compilations, one is still deprived of the coquettish "Miss Attraction" and the pensive "Angry Young Man" from "The Best Of," the twelve song, vinyl release alluded to earlier. Four of the band's songs, recorded as A and B sides to singles, are also absent from any of the above ("Me and the Township," "Changes," "California Day" and "Girl from the City"). It seems as if no compilation is ever complete!

All of the group's songs have grown on me over the years, however, "Sea Shell" and "Pretty Song From 'Psych-Out'" (both on the album reviewed) have proven to be the most captivating. I therefore invite you to romantically awaken to "Strawberries Mean Love"--the sweet, rubicund pith of the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Description of Strawberries Mean Love

Classic Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock