 | The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)Genres: rock, psychedelic rock |
review by daniel
Assisted by his main collaborator, organist Vincent Crane, madman Arthur Brown has created a psychedelic rock album that sounds “trippier” than anything I have ever heard in the genre. Do not expect the trip to be a dreamy inner journey, though; this is as extrovert as it gets. Arthur Brown has an extremely powerful and versatile voice and he is definitely not shy about it. He whispers and sings one moment and the next he is screaming and howling like a madman who has worked himself up to falsetto. All the time supported by a rough-sounding organ (in addition to drums, bass and an occasional saxophone, trumpet or piano).
The lyrical concept of the album is simple and brilliant; the majority of the tracks deal with fire (“I am the god of hellfire and I bring you …fire”, “There’s only one way out; go bathe yourself in fire”). Actually, I am not sure of what tracks belong to the original album. My disc starts with five tracks in mono and ends with ten tracks in stereo (including stereo versions of the mono tracks). Confusing, but the album is strong regardless of how you solve the puzzle (if I got rid of the cover of "I Put a Spell on You" I would add half a star, however).
