TOMORROW

TOMORROW were a London-based one-album band who released this self-titled album of English psychedelia in 1968. The album is best-known for featuring Steve Howe who later went on to achieve great success with YES and ASIA. The album also features Keith West on vocals, who had a big hit with "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" in 1967. The album represents a nice slice of English Psychedelic Rock at its finest. The original album contained 11 songs of relatively-short duration with a 1999 reissue of the album including 12 bonus songs. The Beatle-esque "Tomorrow" album features four stand-out songs which will linger longer in the memory:- "My White Bicycle", "Shy Boy", "Revolution", and a very good cover version of "Strawberry Fields Forever". This is the kind of flower-power album you might have listened to in the late 1960's whilst strolling gaily down Carnaby Street in London, wearing a brightly-coloured, wide-lapelled suit, a kipper tie, flared trousers, platform boots, and maybe even some flowers in your hair, San Francisco style,

The album gets off to a flying start with the hard-rocking opening song "My White Bicycle", which was later covered by the British Hard Rock band Nazareth in the mid-1970's. "Colonel Brown" is a nice piece of English whimsy with an upbeat sound which bounds along joyfully. "Real Life Permanent Dream" is the most psychedelic-sounding song on the album, as the title implies, featuring a fast-paced Indian sitar which is very reminiscent of The Beatles "Revolver" period. "Shy Boy" is an enjoyable well-known song of the era with an uplifting beat. The song was later covered by the English band Kippington Lodge in 1969. "Revolution" is another psychedelic song very much in the style of The Beatles. It's a different song to the Beatles number but still has the same revolutionary fervour to it. "The Incredible Journey of Timothy Chase" continues in similar fashion with jangling psychedelic guitars and a sitar. The charmingly-titled "Auntie Mary's Dress Shop" is another Beatle-esque number which wears its English psychedelic colours with pride. Next up is an excellent cover version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" which is very true to the original Beatles version. "Three Jolly Little Dwarfs" is another uptempo number which romps along merrily in marvellous psychedelic style with the sound of the sitar very much at the forefront. "Now Your Time Has Come" is the longest song on the album at nearly five minutes long where Steve Howe is given free rein to demonstrate his early prowess with the electric guitar, playing some wonderfully acid guitar licks. The album concludes in true psychedelic style with "Hallucinations", an uplifting song featuring atmospheric in-and-out phasing, twinned with some masterly Steve Howe guitar riffs. It's the perfect album closer to a classic psychedelic album of its time.

"Tomorrow" is a very English-sounding psychedelic album of Proto-Prog which will appeal greatly to fans of the late-1960's Beatles era sound. The album will also be of interest to YES fans who'd like to hear guitar legend Steve Howe back in his early pre-YES-terdays.