The Appletree Theatre - Playback (Reissue) (1968/2009)

Playback is divided into three acts, an overture, and an epilogue, with the full-length songs linked by dialogue and snatches of music, sometimes given distorted sonic treatment. That's a style that became trendy during the Sgt. Pepper era, but really wasn't strictly necessary for a set such as this, which in the main consists of fairly conventional songs mixing folk-rock, pop/rock, light psychedelia, and orchestrated sunshine pop. The music is pleasant and fitfully unusual, with the Beach Boys-ish psych-lite of "Hightower Square" recalling the better moments of Sagittarius. There are also lilting, folky, pensive tunes like "Saturday Morning" and "I Wonder If Louise Is Home" that would probably find favor with fans of mildly adventurous 1960s pop/rockers like Emitt Rhodes. Obviously the interludes and jarring bits of country-pop and soul-rock were intended as components of a quasi-psychedelic mosaic. But they often end up distracting from the group's forte, which is nice, dreamy, bittersweet psychedelic-tinged folk/rock/pop, as heard on the closing "What a Way to Go."