There was no shortage of good albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but is special even within their ranks. had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single and much of their other 1967 output, but pretty much ripped the envelope. British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on ' album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of on , or actor/performers as on 's . tried a little bit of all of these approaches on , but they never softened their sound. Side one's material, in particular, would not have been out of place on any other release -- and both have a pounding beat from , and 's surging organ drives the former while his economical piano accompaniment embellishes the latter; and 's crunching guitar highlights singing has him assuming two distinct "roles," neither unfamiliar -- the Cockney upstart on and the diminutive shouter on Some of side two's production is more elaborate, with overdubbed harps and light orchestration here and there, and an array of more ambitious songs, all linked by a narration by comic dialect expert , about a character called "Happiness Stan." The core of the sound, however, is found in the pounding which became a highlight of the group's stage act during its final days -- the song seems lean and mean with a mix in which 's bass is louder than the overdubbed horns. Even which derives from influences, has a refreshingly muscular sound on its acoustic instruments. Overall, this was the ballsiest-sounding piece of full-length psychedelia to come out of England, and it rode the number one spot on the U.K. charts for six weeks in 1968, though not without some controversy surrounding advertisements by that parodied the Lord's Prayer. Still, ' was the group's crowning achievement -- it had even been 's hope to do a stage presentation of , though a television special might've been more in order. ~ Bruce Eder