Fever Tree – FEVER TREE***

Imitation Situation 1/Where Do You Go/San Francisco Girls (Return Of The Native)/Ninety-Nine & One Half/Man Who Paints The Pictures/Filigree & Shadow/The Sun Also Rises/Day Tripper-We Can Work It Out/Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing/Unlock My Door/Come With Me (Rainsong)

Self titled debut album from the Houston psychedelic rock group Fever Tree. Featuring the then fashionable fuzz guitar with orchestrated ballads and touches of classical influences. (US:156)

“The music of Fever Tree is difficult to describe, but features really heavy psychedelia mixed with proto-prog overblown to almost Wagnerian proportions, to which is added roaring organ, violent fuzz guitar, tender flute and romantic piano. The voice of Dennis Keller easily covered melancholic ballads and menacing dark chanting. The creative strength of the album is so great, that it survived overproducing.”

"Dennis Keller's lead vocals are fantastic and the songs hold up today. Though listed as psychedelic rock, the music is very wide ranging and mixed very well. Even if you have never heard of Fever Tree, this first release is well worth a listen.”

“This is a very underrated album (and group). With touches of classical influence here and there, the material on Fever Tree's self titled debut ranges from psych rock to orchestrated ballads.”

“The band were a vehicle for the producers, who composed and arranged the material and were obviously responsible for the superb and innovative production, which combines the best of psych with rich early prog rock sounds. Another key asset is the powerful and exciting vocalist.”

“Just when we're convinced that this is a rock band, Dennis Keller morphs into Neil Diamond on The Beatles and Buffalo Springfield covers. Not bad, but we're left with not knowing what to make of this group. Is it classical? Is it psych? Is it pop? The end result is that it is a little of all three, which makes it a lot of nothing.”

“The material found here is primarily orchestrated soft ballads and soul/pop. But there is enough outstanding psych stuff on the first side to salvage this album to a high degree. Outstanding, close to perfect Texan psychedelic rock in the vein of Vanilla Fudge, but more garage and less proto-prog.”