TOMORROW

If these were the Psycharchives, Tomorrow's sole album could have retired happily on the basis of the whopping 5 stars I would have accorded it. For I believe this Steve Howe-inspired nugget to be one of the finest examples of late 60s British psychedelic rock. Unfortunately, I cannot in good conscience recommend it wholeheartedly to all you proggers out there, so I guess a minor history lesson is in order.

The UK psych scene of the late 60s produced many quality works that might well appeal to progressive fans. Some of the bands responsible for these classics include Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Traffic, Procol Harum, Quintessence and Soft Machine who eventually evolved in a more progressive direction and thus are listed in these archives. Other bands like The Zombies (Odessey And Oracle), The Pretty Things (S.F. Sorrow), Spooky Tooth (Spooky Two), The Small Faces (Ogden's Nut Gone Flake), Nirvana (The Story Of Simon Simopath and All Of Us) and indeed The Beatles (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour) never made that progression. Tomorrow belongs in the latter category. As far as I'm concerned Tomorrow's eponymous album is a stunning psych album that probably only made it on the archives because one of the group's members went on to became progressive rock's greatest guitarist.

The album itself contains some of my favourite moments of psychedelic rock in the form of My White Bicycle (later covered by rockers Nazareth), the sitar-driven Real Life Permanent Dream, the compulsive Revolution, the aching Hallucinations and a stupendous cover of The Byrds' Why (which was actually just a single B-side tagged on this CD as a bonus track). Allied to the Beatlesque pop of Colonel Brown, Shy Boy, The Incredible Journey Of Timothy Chase, Three Jolly Little Dwarfs and a passable cover of Strawberry Fields Forever that doesn't quite compare to the original (how could it?), but still manages to still comfortably alongside the other tracks, Tomorrow is a mesmerizing, seamless example of top-notch psychedelic rock.

Aside from Why and the equally compelling Claramount Lake (incidentally Howe's trademark playing is most apparent on these two cuts), the bonus tracks include (the rhythm section's side project) The Aquarian Age's marvellous 10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box as well as its absolutely atrocious Good Wizzard Meets Naughty Wizzard. There are also four tracks from Tomorrow's lead singer Keith West including Kinks-influenced tracks like On A Saturday and The Kid Was A Killer but regrettably not his hit single Teenage Opera. There's also a bit of a musical whodunnit courtesy of two totally different songs both called Now Your Time Has come!

In a prog-rock context this is hardly essential, but to a psych fan, it's an absolute peach of a discovery just waiting for you. ... 64% on the MPV scale