{"id":27564,"date":"2024-05-25T05:30:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T09:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27564"},"modified":"2026-02-16T07:37:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:37:45","slug":"album-review-the-23rd-turnoff-michael-angelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/album-review-the-23rd-turnoff-michael-angelo\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The 23rd Turnoff \u2013 Michael Angelo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Depending on one\u2019s mindset, the name suggests either a trademark late-\u201960s attempt to apply a psychedelic vibe to something ordinary, or merely something very pedestrian (as it were). The truth is that The 23rd<\/sup> Turnoff was an in-joke among the band members.<\/p>\n

Based in Liverpool, England, The 23rd<\/sup> Turnoff had a sound that \u2013 listening today \u2013 evokes thoughts of early Al Stewart (specifically his 1966 b-side \u201cTurn Into Earth\u201d) or perhaps the Moody Blues circa Days of Future Passed<\/em>. \u201cMichael Angelo\u201d is the group’s most well-known tune, and its dreamy vibe and tootling trumpet (a la the piccolo on \u201cPenny Lane\u201d) fixes it in the mind as a product of a very specific time.<\/p>\n

As it happens, that song and its arrangement weren\u2019t especially representative of the group\u2019s work. The chirpy \u201cDreaming\u201d feels a lot like Herman\u2019s Hermits. Not a bad thing at all, but not very psychedelic. It is notable as having been recorded just three months before \u201cMichael Angelo,\u201d not for release but as an audition. For who, you may well ask. Why, producer George Martin, and engineer Geoff Emerick! (The band wouldn\u2019t be signed to EMI, though).<\/p>\n

For that elusive psych vibe, though, one need only listen to the third cut on this compilation. Another demo recording, \u201cFlowers are Flowering\u201d has the moody and mystical character that was all the rage in \u201867. Here the group sounds a bit like The Iveys (pre-Badfinger). It has a few subtly-applied effects, giving it a quality a notch or two above the garden variety demo tape. The drums are especially<\/em> appealing.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Not) a Penny in My Pocket\u201d is another Martin\/Emerick session, but the same day as \u201cDreaming.\u201d The melody is too familiar by half, and it\u2019s shamelessly derivative in every way, conjuring thoughts of The Kinks crossed with, say, the Lovin\u2019 Spoonful. Again, not bad in any way, but in \u201867 you had to do better to get noticed.<\/p>\n

The whiplash between psych-leaning tracks and pop confections continues. \u201cI\u2019ll Be Round\u201d is a studio demo that hints at what the song could have been with better production; it has a wind-up feel that suggests Sell Out<\/i>-era Who, or The Attack. Freakbeat, almost (but not quite). The dodgy quality of the audio (wobbly phase from what sounds like a nth -generation dub or badly worn acetate) doesn\u2019t help, but it\u2019s still worth hearing.<\/p>\n

A demo of \u201cMichael Angelo\u201d suggests that while some of the ideas for the arrangement came from the band themselves, the session-proper\u2019s producer and arranger added many of its most distinctive qualities. And apparently writing (after a fashion) about great artists was a \u201cthing\u201d for The 23rd<\/sup> Turnoff. That would explain \u201cAnother Vincent Van Gogh.\u201d Nice harmonies and Revolver<\/i>-style bass work.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave Me Here\u201d is the only cut besides \u201cMichael Angelo\u201d that was released during the band\u2019s run. The flip of that single, it sounds like a b-side: nice enough, in a Peter and Gordon vein. It does have an (exceedingly brief) Eastern-flavored bridge in its midsection. More of that would have been good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll Be With You\u201d is another demo, with a waltzing feel not too far removed from \u201cMichael Angelo.\u201d \u201cMother\u2019s Boy\u201d is another<\/em> demo, again with solid harmonies but lacking a strong melody. \u201cYou Sing Your Own Song\u201d is a fuzzed-out rocker that has vague echoes of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cThink for Yourself.\u201d But only vague ones.<\/p>\n

A third(!) version of \u201cMichael Angelo\u201d is included toward the end of the disc. Cut at IBC a month before the released version, it hints at the final version but isn\u2019t quite there. The same session yielded another run-through\u201d of \u201c(Not) a Penny in My Pocket,\u201d and hearing it merely reinforces the fact that it\u2019s a rewrite of the Spoonful\u2019s \u201cDaydream.\u201d (You can actually sing \u201cDaydream\u201d along with the recording, and it fits.) The arrangement is better than the Martin\/Emerick session, though.<\/p>\n

A demo of \u201cAnother Vincent Van Gogh\u201d is pretty solid; don\u2019t be put off by the dub quality. Some nice guitar licks figure into the arrangement.<\/p>\n

For all the detail provided for the other tracks, the inclusion of \u201cLovely Elisa Cope is Dead\u201d will remain a minor mystery. The notes indicate only that it\u2019s a \u201cpost-23rd Turnoff demo.\u201d When? Who? Who knows? Not me. It sounds like the same guys, and the fidelity is a few notches higher than most of what\u2019s featured here. Rock it does not, but it\u2019s nice enough.<\/p>\n

The set\u2019s excellent liner notes do a fine job of documenting the short history of this little-known group. Certainly not the Great Lost Psych Tape of 1967, Michael Angelo<\/i> remains worthwhile for those who \u2013 like this writer \u2013 have boundless curiosity about (and enthusiasm for) the dusty corners of British popsike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Depending on one\u2019s mindset, the name suggests either a trademark late-\u201960s attempt to apply a psychedelic vibe to something ordinary, or merely something very pedestrian (as it were). The truth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,51,57,65],"tags":[5425],"class_list":["post-27564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-pop","category-psych","category-review","tag-23rd-turnoff","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-57-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27564"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30792,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions\/30792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}