This is Gladstone's second album - 19 tracks in all. Original songs,
cover songs, there are funny songs about Mel Lastman, serious songs about
Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. There are instrumentals too, the best thing
on the album. Gladstone's a good guitar player. But Psychedelic? Maybe he
took different drugs than everyone else did. The cover is psychedelic.
It's great. Peter Max lives! But the music - its all acoustic - where's
the psychedelia?
The disc is part serious, part tongue in cheek, so it's hard to condemn
and it's hard to praise. In the end, it reminded me of a recorded evening
at a coffeehouse in the 60's - the whole evening - no editing for what
worked and what didn’t. These days, where it is possible to record in
your home studio (like this CD was), sometimes performers miss the boat in
editing and focus. It's like showing off a rough diamond rather than a
polished one. This could have been a very good record with some judicious
cutting.
By Les Siemieniuk