Rare Bird

For those of you who prefer your rock and roll with plenty of six-string power chords, the species of rare bird featured here is probably best left unexplored. This UK-based quartet’s debut, first released in 1969 on Charisma Records, reveals yet another participant in the rather odd British progressive hard rock movement that eschewed the use of guitars for multiple keyboard experimentation. The end result is an organ-dominated romp through the decade’s brief brush with psychedelic art rock. What separates this outfit from its contemporaries, however, is the existence of an actual—gasp—hit. “Sympathy,” a slow, somber, hymn-like processional, slipped into the British Top 30 in 1970, and at the very least secured the band’s status as one-hit wonders. The album’s most embarrassing moment (you knew there was at least one) comes in the form of the apocalyptic “God of War,” a song whose vocal approach is done largely in whispers. The band’s second and final record for Charisma appeared a year later; the appropriately titled As Your Mind Flies By failed to replicate the success of the debut.

Notes: Singer Steve Gould later appeared in a great pop/rock band called Runner. The group’s lone self-titled debut from 1979 is definitely worth seeking out (it’s currently available on compact disc as a Japanese import from Airmail Records).