The Four King Cousins - Introducing...The Four King Cousins (1968/2020)

Straddling the line between sunshine pop and easy listening, Introducing the Four King Cousins is as whitebread as you'd guess from the cover picture of four blondes in white dresses. The harmonies are accomplished but fairly soulless, and the arrangements right out of late-'60s variety television which, as it happened, the Four King Cousins had some experience with in their appearances as part of The King Family Show series. The selection of material isn't too imaginative, either, opting mostly for covers of well-known songs of the mid- to late '60s by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Bacharach/David, Lesley Gore, and the Monkees, as well as the standards "It's All in the Game" and "Let's Get Away from It All." Soft pop aficionados might be interested to note the presence of two songs co-written by Roger Nichols, "Love So Fine" (penned with Tony Asher, and previously covered by Herb Alpert and Nichols himself) and "I Fell" (co-authored by Nichols and Paul Williams). Overall, this sounds like '60s pop made as safe as possible for Middle America which might count as either a zealous recommendation or a wrathful condemnation, depending upon your tastes.