The Neon Philharmonic - Brilliant Colors: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings

This double-CD set, Brilliant Colors: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings, should be a no-brainer of a purchase for anyone who is an admirer of Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle, Richard Harris' two Jimmy Webb collaborations (A Tramp Shining and The Yard Went On Forever), The Free Design's classic '60s albums, the extant fragments of Brian Wilson's previously lost Smile album, or any of the other classic examples of ornate late '60s psychedelic pop -- not that what's here is exactly psychedelic, so much as baroque pop, with lots of elaborate, occasionally "out-there" orchestral arrangements that luxuriate in their own ornate weirdness, sort of like Parks' "The All Golden" or "Palm Desert." The Neon Philharmonic's two albums The Moth Confesses and The Neon Philharmonic are both represented (in superb sound) on the first CD, but the real treat is the 58-minute long second disc, which encompasses the group's singles -- once one gets past the four cuts lifted off of The Moth Confesses, most of the rest is comprised of some very pretty and nicely produced non-LP single sides that are some of the most enjoyable unknown sunshine pop of the period, and, as Andy Zax, the annotator of this set observes, virtually a third LP in breadth and content. Read More