Harmony Grass - This Is Us

Harmony Grass - This Is Us - 1970 (re 2003)

Harmony Grass' sole LP has a few songs from their late-1960s singles (including "Move in a Little Closer," their only British hit), and it's also filled out by a few Tony Rivers originals and an assortment of covers. This odd, occasionally impressive and sometimes saccharine mix of pop/rock casts the group among the few British exponents of sunshine pop. Sometimes the airplane-commercial harmonies and cheeriness is vacuous. On the other hand, Rivers proves himself a competent emulator of the Beach Boys' most upbeat material on "Summer Dreaming" and "My Little Girl," as well as the Pet Sounds era on "I've Seen to Dream." On yet another hand, with "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "Tom Dooley," and the weird "(It Ain't Necessarily) Byrd Avenue," the group sounds like a college glee club, here to entertain for your social function, backed by extremely competent studio musicianship. On "Ballad of Michael," Rivers grapples with somewhat more serious lyrical themes in a tale of a philandering bachelor, but the song also finds him trying to squeeze too many words into too little space. 

01. Move In A Little Closer Baby

02. My Little Girl

03. What A Groovy Day

04. I've Seen To Dream

05. (It Ain't Necessarily) Byrd Avenue

06. Chattanooga Choo Choo

07. Good Thing

08. Mrs Richie

09. Summer Dreaming

10. I Think Of You

11. Ballad Of Michael

12. Tom Dooley

13. What Do You Do When Love Dies

Bonus Tracks

14. Let My Tears Flow (1970 Demo)

15. You And I (1970 Demo)

16. Summer Dreaming (1969 Demo)

17. Walk On By (1969 Radio Session)

+@320