Gandalf – GANDALF***

Golden Earrings/Hang On To A Dream/Never Too Far/Scarlet Ribbons/You Upset The Grace Of Living/Can You Travel In The Dark Alone/Nature Boy/Tiffany Rings/Me About You/I Watch The Moon

Self titled sole album from the New York psychedelic group Gandalf. Most of the songs are covers but two are band originals. Poor promotion by Capitol records may have contributed to their early demise.

“This is a wonderful album, not overproduced, but with a dreamy, laid back vibe and a velvet landscape with a feminine essence that's hard to describe. The vocals are one of the highlights, very soft and articulate, drenched in reverb and sometimes echo out.”

“I was curious about this one for quite some time, but was put off by the name, which immediately conjures up images of stupid twee songs about elves and other hippy silliness. But what a pleasant surprise was in store, this is fantastic melodic psych that will really grow on you.”

“This is a very well done album. It is nicely composed, arranged and performed, with some fine singing. It is pretty mellow with lots of organ, though Never Too Far is a nice blast of fuzzy-guitar psych. The trippy studio effects are used tastefully and contribute to a pleasantly hazy, dreamlike vibe. I think it's one of the best obscure albums of the era. Highly recommended for psych, baroque pop and 60s fans.”

“This isn't a bad early psych release at all. There are too many cover tunes for my taste, but I like the Tim Hardin stuff, and Gandalf do a good job with them.”

“Most of the music is so far outer space psych that you can't make out what the singer is saying. If that weren't bad enough, the singer himself has a voice very high pitched and generally non-melodic. The music is what I'd call sub-par psych-rock, it never adds much to the songs.”

"Some pretty spaced out psychedelia. Its all pretty good, but a bit too laid back with the band never really cutting loose until the closing track I Watch The Moon. Fortunately everything here is pretty decent, I just wish they'd stop being so mellow.”

“It's riddled with boring, aimless passages of oblivious delirium, but it does have it's shining moments, even if those moments are cover songs and not band originals.”