Butterfly – THE HOLLIES*****

Dear Eloise/Away Away Away/Maker/Pegasus/Would You Believe/Wishyouawish/Postcard/Charlie & Fred/Try It/Elevated Observations/Step Inside/Butterfly

Butterfly is The Hollies psychedelic masterpiece. Ironically, it was the least successful album from their heyday, failing to chart in both the US and UK. Graham Nash would soon depart, and the group would return to releasing more mainstream pop material.

"This album is the peak of The Hollies creativity, their true 'Evolution' album in which they finally turned into a beautiful Butterfly. Every moment is 60s pop perfection with tinges of psychedelia and soft introspective moments, courtesy of Graham Nash. It's unfortunate that this would be their last great album and their last with Nash."

"The songs on this album are amazing. Pegasus is an incredible track and the only one that Tony Hicks took lead vocals on. Pretty much every song here is a winner, with my personal favourite being Elevated Observations. I highly recommend this album if you are just getting into psychedelic music, it is right up with the standards of 60s psychedelic."

"It is definitely poppy, but this being 1967 there are thick psychedelic vibes in the stew. And yes, the songs are good - Maker, with its layers of psych sitar, is genuinely trippy, and every bit as good as any Orient inspired psych pop from 67 - but hey, there's tons of other good moments to be savoured here."

"Butterfly features plenty of exotic instrumentation and full, live orchestration. Much of their experimentation on the album reflected other prominent releases of the year, but these ideas had not yet passed their freshness date and the phenomenal song-writing of Clarke-Hicks-Nash more than compensated for any redundancies. Apparently, the band as a whole was not too excited about the dive into psychedelia that they had begun with Evolution and continued here. This caused creative strain and Graham Nash would depart for America shortly after this album, but on Butterfly the tension provides a perfect balance between pop and psychedelia."

"This gem of an album came out in the Summer of Love period and was so different from their singles. It is still refreshing to hear it today with Nash and Clarke at their brilliant best and Tony Hicks outstanding as a lead guitarist."