Kaleidoscope - Bernice (Expanded Edition) (2018)

This desultory album (the band's last before breaking up) shows the magic of the band seemingly overcome by lack of success, musical conflicts, and the collapse of enthusiasm that came with the end of the '60s. Bassist Stuart Brotman was out, the exotic instruments of the past are almost gone, and, according to John Platt in the liner notes to the Kaleidoscope compilation A Beacon from Mars, "Lindley, in particular, decided what he really wanted to play was R&B, perhaps the one style, at the time, he wasn't good at." The long instrumental that ends the album falls completely flat, as do attempts at humor: any fan of Kaleidoscope's original "Little Orphan Annie," a fun early B-side, will find its remake here as "Lulu Arfin Nanny," sung by new recruit Jeff Kaplan, just painful. Not recommended.