While the Flamin' Groovies' first album, Supersnazz, loaded their high-octane
retro-rock down with a loving but overly intrusive production, their next
long-player, Flamingo, went in exactly the opposite direction; for their
second time at bat (and their second major label), the Groovies cranked
up their amps and kicked up the tempos, while producer Richard Robinson
stripped the band's sound to the bone. If Flamingo has a flaw, it's that
the album is just a bit too basic; the recording sounds a bit flat and
muddy, and it isn't very flattering to either Tim Lynch's guitar or Danny
Mihm's drums (and who fell in love with the panning control while they
were mixing?). But if Flamingo sometimes sounds more like a demo than
a finished album, it's a demo of a great band firing on all cylinders;
with "Gonna Rock Tonite," the album starts out in fifth gear
and never stops, with even the less manic tunes (such as the bluesy "Childhood's
End") sounding sharp and full of fire, and the many rave-ups raving
mighty fine indeed (notable exception: the trippy "She's Falling
Apart," which proves these guys didn't understand psychedelia and
had no business playing it, which was a considerable virtue in the Bay
Area during the late '60s and early '70s). If the engineering sometimes
lets them down, Flamingo does a far, far better job of capturing what
made the Groovies a great band than their debut and ranks alongside their
very finest work. [ Buddha Records' 1999 CD reissue tacks on six potent
bonus tracks from a live-in-the-studio session which appeared in part
on the 1976 compilation Still Shakin'.]
(by Mark Deming, All
Music Guide)
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