The Ophelias - The Big O (1989)

The final effort from the '80s psych types in the Ophelias probably ranks as their best in the end -- it's not quite the truly fried experimentation that many groups would attempt in later years, but as a just-wiggier-enough equivalent to Game Theory, The Big O makes for good fun. What with titles like "Buspass to Budapest" -- not to mention covers of the Nervous Breakdowns' nugget "I Dig Your Mind" and a concluding take on Skip Spence's "Lawrence of Euphoria" -- the quartet would have been a prime candidate for performing at Terrastock festivals or maybe ending up with the Elephant 6 collective. That said, the spirit of the Ophelias suggests Marc Bolan more than Brian Wilson, with lead singer Leslie Medford's vocals having that kind of winsomely sweet singing set against electric grooves that suggests the T. Rex elf's late-'60s existence, though with less warble and more choirboy control ("When Winter Comes" being a notable exception). Elsewhere, there's U.S. garage vocal sass and sneer ("Leah Hirsig" in the verses, "She" throughout most of the song), "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" orchestrations on "Pretty Green Ice-Box Eyes," bits of funk slap bass, as well as the general clarity of most '60s-referencing albums from two decades later. Once or twice they even seem to reflect their Bay Area surroundings of the present instead of the past -- "Holy Glow" sounds more than a little like what Mr. Bungle might have come up with with a more straight-up classic rock background. One can't ever quite get the sense the Ophelias would completely go mental or alternately create a haunted acid folk album, but that doesn't seem to be the point so much as finding a way to synthesize everything from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn to modern power pop, and why not?