The Aerovons
Resurrection

(RPM 2003)

www.aerovons.com

Let's face it: most rock groups in the 60s had their share of bad luck. Between drugs, the draft, censorship, and record-company politics, it was quite a challenge for an assemblage of young musicians to create music, express themselves creatively, and find a break. In terms of luck, then, The Aerovons must be viewed as extraordinary. Hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, and only in their teens, The Aerovons had the consummately enviable opportunity to travel to England to record an album at the even-then legendary Abbey Road studios, following the lead of their ultimate icons, The Beatles.

As intricately detailed in Resurrection's excellent liner notes, a Capitol Records representative heard a demo recording of the band's original composition "World of You", praised it, and made it possible for The Aerovons to travel to London to record for Parlophone records. Although only two singles were ever released from the sessions, the group did indeed record a full-length album, which is presented on this CD for the first time. Although their engaging story competes with their actual recorded material for visibility, The Aerovons do present some good pieces here, even if much of it does, in terms of style, betray their Beatle-worship. The opening track, the aforementioned "World of You", is a great number in terms of musicianship and arrangement, with its sweeping strings and lovely vocal harmonies.

"Resurrection" is a good pop tune with nice guitar work, although admittedly it sounds closely patterned after The Beatles' "Across the Universe". Yes, it's obvious that The Aerovons were paying close, even larcenous attention to the Fab Four's concurrent Abbey Road activities; their "Say Georgia" sounds very much inspired by yet another Beatle tune, this time "Oh! Darling". Fortunately, however, much of the remaining material on Resurrection doesn't sound quite so … familiar, shall we say. With its simple harmonies and pretty acoustic-guitar picking, "With Her" actually harkens back to the Beatles' earlier period stylistically, sounding like it might have been procured from the cutting-room floor of the Beatles for Sale sessions. The appealing "The Years" boasts some nice tremeloed guitar work reminiscent of "I Need You", the George Harrison-penned contribution to the Help! Soundtrack. "Bessy Goodheart", "She's Not Dead" (with a piano intro borrowed from "Let It Be"), and "Everything's Alright" are enjoyable pop rock tunes, too. Other songs on Resurrection--for example "Quotes and Photos" and "Something of Yours"--while certainly not disagreeable, aren't particularly inspiring, either. Added to the original twelve tracks intended for the album are four bonus tracks in much the same style, which is to say that they're accomplished, though undistinguished.

While Resurrection actually is a pretty good CD, it rather seems a shame that the "original" compositions feel so closely inspired by their Beatles equivalents, as this has a tendency to obscure The Aerovons' obvious talent. The musicianship of the band, for instance, is beyond reproach, and the production and arrangements are excellent--amazing, in fact, considering they were largely done by seventeen-year-old group leader Tom Hartman. It would be unfair to dismiss Resurrection simply because of its imitativeness, but it would be naïve to embrace it as a masterwork by a new Beatles, too.

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