Too serious to be bubblegum, too sweet to be adult contemporary, the Harpers Bizarre fearlessly blazed their own trail without worrying about whether or not their brand of elcectic adult vocal pop would endure. And sadly, some of this material hasn't worn terribly well. But there's some great stuff on Anything Goes, mainly "Snow," "Jessie," and "You Need a Change" -- "High Coin" and "Pocketful of Miracles" are near misses.The "hit" was "Chattanooga Choo Choo," but in 2001 it seems awfully cutesy-poo, as with the title track ...
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Too serious to be bubblegum, too sweet to be adult contemporary, the Harpers Bizarre fearlessly blazed their own trail without worrying about whether or not their brand of elcectic adult vocal pop would endure. And sadly, some of this material hasn't worn terribly well. But there's some great stuff on Anything Goes, mainly "Snow," "Jessie," and "You Need a Change" -- "High Coin" and "Pocketful of Miracles" are near misses.The "hit" was "Chattanooga Choo Choo," but in 2001 it seems awfully cutesy-poo, as with the title track. "Louisiana Man"/"Milord"/"Virginia City" run together as a suite- an innovation in 1967, but also kind of a shame, as "Milord" is a much stronger effort than its flanking companions. Production values are excellent, and one of these guys moved on to production work (does the name Ted Templeman ring a bell? It should.) Harpers Bizarre do not sing on "This is Only the Beginning," which can be best described as an old-time radio montage. Throughout the disc there are snippets of Cole Porter singing between tracks, in keeping with the old fashioned groove of the overall project. However the more contemporary material sounds the strongest, with one exception -- "Malibu U" is hippie high-camp; like Ed Wood, so bad it's good. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi
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