Search - Fickle Pickle :: Sinful Skinful

Sadly overlooked 70's pop rock gem ala Badfinger!

G. Putman | Las Vegas, NV United States | 05/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album amazed me! All of the songwriting is very strong here, and the arrangements are at times very creative. The other reviewer complained that this was not psychedelic. He is right, it is not. But who ever claimed that it was psychedelic to begin with? Just the fact that they cover Paul McCartney's "Baby I'm Amazed" should tell you that they were probably not going to be psychedelic, or acid rock! If you are a fan of Badfinger, Wings, or even The Move, then you need to hear this, because these guys sound like a combination of all of those bands, with just a touch of 70's art-school pop thrown in! It is a real tragedy that these guys suffered the fate that they did, because they could sing, play, and write strong hooks. They really deserved much much better."

Also-ran pop, but nice in spots

Eb | California | 08/07/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Obvious reference points for this good-time relic include Badfinger, Paul McCartney and a bit of the Small Faces. Most typically, Fickle Pickle draws on the bouncy, nostalgic piano pop of McCartney tunes like "Come and Get It," "Martha My Dear" and "Your Mother Should Know," and tries to negotiate that tricky line between "whimsical" and "intolerably precious."



The best tracks on the original album are the first three. "California Calling" mixes cute hooks with phone-operator sound effects, though the jazzy arrangement is more New Orleans than Hollywood. "Sinful Skinful" mixes a ragtime verse with a big singalong chorus, and "Sandy" is a sweet acoustic ballad with plenty of interesting chord changes. From there, the album falters. "Saturday" is almost a neat dose of orchestrated pop, but the flanged "Itchycoo Park" vocals sabotage it.



The bonus tracks (recorded over a period of a few years) sometimes sound like a totally different band, and hurt the CD's sense of unity. The matched pair of "Millionaire" and "Sam and Sadie" surpasses most of the album tracks, but "Holiday Farm" sounds like a passable castoff from the Who's Tommy. "Here and Now" is a towering ballad landing somewhere between Elton John and the Easybeats' "Hello, How Are You," while "Sweet Wilfred, A Rodent of Note" (rhymed with "homosexual stoat"), "Man with One Leg" and "Poor Little Frogs" (a warped "tribute" to France) follow the lead of the album's "Doctor Octopus" and head full steam into novelty. Plenty of offbeat vocal layers and comically exaggerated accents there. "Letter" reminds me of the Bay City Rollers, and "Maybe I'm Amazed," "American Pie" (ack, anything but that!) and "Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song" are just expendable, copycat bids for secondhand commercial success.



The album is likable enough that its obscurity is surprising, but you're better off sticking with the genre's bigger names."