If Only For A Moment ((Expanded Edition) [2022 Remaster])

Blossom Toes

Released on 01/01/1969 by Esoteric
Main artists: Blossom Toes
Genre: Progressive Rock

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London psychedelic rockers Blossom Toes' 1967 debut We Are Ever So Clean was released at the height of a certain wave of acid-influenced flower power rock, arriving around the same time and bearing some tonal similarities to classics like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Love's Forever Changes. Second album (and what proved to be their last) If Only for a Moment was released just two years later, but displayed a much bleaker, hard-edged side of the band's sound, one that leaned into aggressive songwriting, overdriven hard rock guitars, and lyrical themes of confusion and unrest. Apart from a few drummers coming and going, Blossom Toes' hadn't undergone any massive personnel changes between their first, lighter album and If Only for a Moment. Brian Godding and Jim Cregan were still acting as the band's principle songwriters, but the shift in the style is pronounced and dramatic. While We Are Ever So Clean had 15 quick songs of whimsical Who-esque pop, here the band stretched out on just eight slow-burning and intricate tracks. Songs like "Love Bomb" and "Listen to the Silence" bring together the slick, moody grooves of Bay Area psychedelia and progressive rock song structures with lyrics that address social woes. Traces of late-period Hendrix can be heard in the pensive, oozy guitar leads of paranoid funk workout "Billy Boo Gunman." The song also mirrors some of the songwriting changes the Beatles were exhibiting on The White Album, which had been out for about eight months before If Only for a Moment surfaced. Perhaps the starkest example of how Blossom Toes were changing on If Only for a Moment is opening track "Peace Loving Man." The song's dissonant riffing is dangerously close to early metal, while the exaggerated, bellowing vocals on the verses and sarcastic tone of the overly saccharine choruses point to the influence of both Beefheart and Zappa. Repeated references to confusion, war, and disillusionment are a far cry from the light and daydreamy songs Blossom Toes were making just two years prior. If Only for a Moment is just as strong a document of late-'60s psychedelia as its predecessor, just from another camp. While the band's debut fit nicely alongside bright records like Small Faces' Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake or quirky fare like Tommy Roe's foray into hip sounds on It's Now Winter's Day, If Only for a Moment can be shelved with albums like Love's Four Sail and the Groundhogs' Thank Christ for the Bomb, albums that reflected the darkness and frustration young people were experiencing worldwide as the Summer of Love faded into more bewildering times.

© Fred Thomas /TiVo

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If Only For A Moment ((Expanded Edition) [2022 Remaster])

Blossom Toes

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Peace Loving Man (2022 Remaster)