PRESENT: ENGLISH WEATHER

Limited double 180 gram black vinyl LP pressing. 2017 release. This project from two-thirds of Saint Etienne is a collection of English music that represented the transition from psychedelia to prog as the '60s moved into the '70s. Most of it is not an easy listen, but it's always interesting, melodic, melancholy, with jazz and folk touches. While America may have licked it's wounds at the turn of the '70s by turning to singer/songwriters, purveyors of homilies like "teach your children well", Britain wasn't so ready to give up the trappings of psychedelia. And while the UK counterculture may have shed it's "faith in something bigger", it wasn't about to chuck out the mellotron. This is how the day after the '60s felt: damp, fuzzy-headed, neither optimistic nor pessimistic but more than a little lost. British bands would mirror the ennui of the new decade with a new kind of music. (This title was listed as clear vinyl but the label changed it to Black)