The Association: Insight Out CD Track Listing

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The Association Insight Out (1967)
Originally Released 1967\nCD Edition Released November 11, 2003\n\nThe Association's third album is not in a league with its debut, but Insight Out is an enjoyable folk/pop-rock album with a few digressions into garage punk, novelty tunes, and psychedelia, all displaying much of what the group did best. The harmonies and choruses are among the most beautifully textured singing in a rock outfit this side of the Beach Boys, while the playing is engaging. Insight Out was done somewhat in the shadow of Harper's Bizarre's experimental ''Feelin' Groovy'' single -- the opening number, ''Wasn't It a Bit Like Now,'' was an exercise in nostalgia similar to the later successful songs of Harper's Bizarre. ''On a Quiet Night'' and ''We Love Us'' are folk-rock ballads on which the group's harmonies are the highlight, while ''When Love Comes to Me'' is a breezy little mood piece that resembles a slightly more ornate cousin to Simon & Garfunkel's ''Punky's Dilemma.''\nIn that company, the number one single ''Windy'' (the presence of which helped drive up sales of this album) sounds almost heavy and hard-rocking. It and the accompanying single ''Never My Love'' (which was later a hit for the Fifth Dimension) are the strongest tracks here. The group's attempt at a harder, garage-band type sound on ''Reputation'' is passable, but this obviously wasn't what fans were buying the album to hear. The sunshine pop sound of ''Happiness Is'' and the radiant ''Sometimes'' were more to the point, and these are prime Association material, comprised of soaring harmonies and hook-laden guitar parts. The 1999 Japanese reissue features state-of-the-art sound, which is the right way to hear this material, with its delicate harmonies; the harder-sounding mono single masters of ''Windy'' and ''Never My Love'' are thrown in as a bonus. -- Bruce Eder\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nThough this album boasted two massive chart hits in Windy and Never, My Love, the rest of the record was no mere filler; the Association were always more of an album-oriented band than their chart success would lead one to believe, and the other songs here rank among their best work. Producer Bones Howe (Mamas & Papas) some of the credit here, but the band's ear for material was phenomenal. Includes great covers of P.F. Sloan's On a Quiet Night and Tim Hardin's Reputation, plus Wasn't It a Bit Like Now; We Love Us; When Love Comes to Me; Happiness Is; Sometime, and Wantin' Ain't Gettin', before winding up with the ambitious, anti-war Requeim for the Masses. The complete 1967 release.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nInsight Out and Upside Down, December 25, 2003 \nReviewer: S.J. Dibai from Philadelphia, PA USA \nThe Association's third album INSIGHT OUT has been available on CD for a few years as an expensive Japanese import. This is a budget-line domestic CD reissue of that album. The sound quality is quite good, and Richie Unterberger provides lively liner notes with informative quotations from Associate Jim Yester. But would specific songwriting credits be too much to ask?\n\nThe band changed producers again, this time going with Bones Howe, who cut slick instrumental tracks with some of LA's top session players, laying the group's rich vocals on top. That, and a renewed willingness to record outside material, produced big commercial results: one huge chart topper with the strangely whimsical ''Windy'' and a strong #2 hit with the Addrisi Brothers' ultra-romantic ''Never My Love.'' On the flip of ''Windy'' was a superb folk-pop-rock ballad, ''Sometime,'' written and sung by the great Russ Giguere and included on the LP. The remaining material ranged from bland and undistinguished to experimental. In the former category, the biggest offender is Ted Bluechel Jr.'s sappy ''We Love Us,'' which has wasted space on the band's ''Greatest Hits'' comps for 35 years.\n\nThe more experimental cuts are fascinating, even when they don't entirely work. ''Wasn't It A Bit Like Now'' is something of a nostalgia trip that goes through three distinctly different sections. The P.F. Sloan-authored ''On A Quiet Night'' gets a gentle, psych-pop reading, while Tim Hardin's ''Reputation'' is torn into shreds in an unusually reckless rave-up. Brian Cole sings lead on this track, and quite frankly, he sounds like he's stoned--no surprise considering that he would end up dying as a result of his drug habit. ''Wantin' Ain't Gettin''' is an ultra-cool slab of psychedelia feautring Brian and Russ harmonizing superbly, while Terry Kirkman's closer ''Requiem For The Masses'' is something else altogether. Kirkman delivers a scathing commentary about war and violence in a piece that is written and arranged like a Latin funeral mass. Overall, the album is worth hearing if you're an Association fan or if you're a '60s pop connoisseur, but it is dragged down somewhat by the blander, more dispensable numbers. (Collector's note: ''Never My Love'' is presented in the LP version, lacking the high-hat overdubs heard on the single version. The single version is available on Rhino's JUST THE RIGHT SOUND anthology.) \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nBones Howe, Producer\n(from AMG EXPERT REVIEW)\n
This rock cd contains 11 tracks and runs 32min 12sec.
Freedb: 87078a0b
Buy: from Amazon.com

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