It'll All Work Out In Boomland

Album review

The short-lived trio T2 found a home in the elusive sweet spot where psychedelic, Baroque pop, prog rock, and proto-metal meet in a collision of tricky tunes, ripping guitar leads, sweet vocal harmonies, and a general air of giddy exploration tempered by really strong songs. Their 1970 album, It'll All Work Out in Boomland, is a glorious one-off that has earned its status as a lost classic. The four songs were recorded mostly live in the studio with the three young musicians playing like they were holding on tightly as a storm lashed them within an inch of their life. Guitarist Keith Cross is the shining star; both his unique chords and paint-peeling solos positioned him as one of the great overlooked progeny of Jimi Hendrix, while also adding in equal amounts of unhinged jazz and an almost-punk attack on the strings. His bandmates -- bassist Bernard Jinks and drummer Peter Dunton -- are as equally adept at playing with tender care as they are tilting at windmills. They function amazingly well as a unit and Dunton's lead vocals are the proverbial cherry on top. He comes close to Colin Blunstone territory on the very Zombies-esque "J.L.T.," and elsewhere does nothing to distract from the swells of sound he's surrounded by. Along with the aforementioned song, the band pile-drive their way through "In Circles," an almost-ten-minute hard rock jam that sounds like Fleetwood Mac, but with fangs and some seriously metallic guitar work that rivals what Tony Iommi was doing at the same time. They give Pink Floyd a run for their money on "No More White Horses," a gently bobbing, sleepily pretty ballad that suddenly explodes into a majestic tune complete with trumpet fanfare. Add in the light vocal harmonies and it's clear they learned almost as much from groups like the Left Banke as they did their heavier contemporaries. T2 really earn their stripes as underground heroes on the album-closing "Morning," which takes up half-a-side as it spends 20-plus minutes answering the musical question, "what would happen if you stretched a Tomorrow song out as long as it would go?" It would be a brilliant psychedelic epic that remains riveting from start to finish as Cross wrings every last bit of electricity from his guitar, and the band follow him to the final moment adding trippy drum solos, soaring vocals, and surprising amounts of power. It could have been an indulgent mess, but the band have enough imagination and skill to make it one of the better songs of its ilk to come out of this magic moment in time. This is true of the entire album, and though they were doomed never to repeat it, T2 were responsible for one of the best albums of the post-psych/pre-prog era.

© Tim Sendra /TiVo