Feelings – THE GRASS ROOTS****

Feelings/Here’s Where You Belong/The Sins Of The Family Fall On The Daughter/Melody For You/Who Will You Be Tomorrow/You Might As Well Go My Way/All Good Things Come To An End/Hot Bright Lights/Hey Friend/You & Love Are The Same/Dinner For Eight/Feelings

Feelings was the follow up album from the San Francisco pop group The Grass Roots. They would release a couple more albums before the end of the decade but to less acclaim.

“The Feelings LP may be devoid of top ten hits, but some of the misses are pretty good. I must say that I always considered The Grass Roots a lightweight, manufactured pop group that produced a handful of classics. This collection certainly changed my mind.”

“This is a beautiful LP representing most of their best work. More depth than their fame suggests for sure, and lots of fun. The melodies and the harmonies are sublime for the most part. They were all young and hungry then, and given the time, 1967-68, it was a zenith for creativity and taking chances.”

“The Grass Roots were not always a slick middle of the road hit machine. Listen to Feelings, and you hear pretty stripped down primitive folk rock. These were the days of hit factories: take a decent band, add some juice and shine up the sound. You had entire staffs on a label making big coin for this. Listening to Feelings, and it is obvious this is what happened to The Grass Roots.”

“Without a doubt, their most appealing release to underground fans, and the one that hooked my attention to them in the first place. It still contains plenty of the mainstream vocal pop they were noted for, but this time more or less equally mixed with some semi-commercial rock, with country and folk flavours, and some pretty good psych influences.”

“Having penned six originals, which are arguably the best six, The Grass Roots came the closest to taking control of their sound than at any other time in their career. It is possible they were ahead of their time by making a cohesive album without an obvious hit single. The opening title track Feelings is a great song that deserved better, but its lack of success was the death knell for them as an autonomous progressive band. We all know what followed.”