Monday, March 10, 2008

Unicorn - Blue Pine Trees


This is one of those records that you can come home to like a cold beer after a brutal work day. There were a good handful of longhaired English dudes and pub rockers who sang and played '70s country rock way better than most of their Los Angelino contemporaries. Unicorn were such a band and these songs were harvested at the apex of their sound, partially in thanks to Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, who twisted pots in the producer's chair and played pedal steel here and there. With those jangly guitars and barbed hooks, "Sleep Song" could've been a young Tom Petty covering a lost Dwight Twilley hit. And in the daydreaming narrative of "Autumn Wine" Kenny Baker sings, "I wish I was a Beach Boy on the California coast/ Wearing nothing but a smile/ Instead of all these coats." The harmonies in "Ooh! Mother" are so easy on the ears that by the time you make it to the second chorus, you could be feathering your hair back with one of those really big combs.