Music Emporium - Music Emporium (Reissue) (1969/2001)

The Music Emporium's sole release is a fair psychedelic obscurity, best when it goes heaviest on the dreamy melodic elements and Carolyn Lee does the singing. "Velvet Sunsets" and "Gentle Thursday," for instance, sound a bit like a garage version of a mixture of the Jefferson Airplane and the United States of America. The more upbeat items, on which Music Emporium leader Casey Cosby takes on the lead vocals, are lumpier, more awkward late-1960s hard rock/psychedelic efforts. Originally a super-rare pressing of just 300, it's been reissued more than once for collectors, and those iterations are much easier to find than the rare original. The best of the reissues, by far, is the 2001 edition on Sundazed, which is taken from the master tape, and includes a detailed history of this hitherto mysterious band. It also adds five previously unissued bonus tracks, although these are just instrumental versions of five of the ten songs on the original LP.