On the Turntable: “Revelations” by New Colony Six (1968)

On the Turntable: “Revelations” by New Colony Six, Mercury Records, 1968. Rating: 6/10

Along with the Buckinghams, the Ides of March and the Cryan Shames, the New Colony Six were one of the bigger high school/garage rock bands in Chicago in the mid-60s. Having released two albums independently and scored a handful of local Top 10 hits like “I Confess” and “I Love You So Much” (both awesome) they got picked up by Mercury Records for this, their third album.  

Mercury softened and mainstreamed their sound dramatically, putting more emphasis on slow dance ballads and polishing their sound with horn arrangements. The band’s two big national hits - the prommy devotional “I Will Always Think About You” and the gorgeous, orchestral post-breakup weeper “Things I’d Like to Say” (“sometimes love hurts, and sometimes love’s unkind, and sometimes you might feel blue”) - are both great, but also not very representative of who the band were. 

The rest of the album is uneven and lacks the spontaneity and sheer joy of their first two records. Still some good stuff here: “Treat Her Groovy” and “Hold Me With Your Eyes” are two of my favorites. “Dandy Handy Man” is a lovably goofy novelty about being a dude who can, like, fix your brakes; and “You Know Better” is a credible approximation of “Revolver”-era Beatles.