3rd Album

iTunes Review

Although this 1971 LP was titled 3rd Album, a more accurate moniker would have been 3rd Album With Mariska Veres — it was actually Shocking Blue’s 4th studio full-length, but they discounted their 1968 eponymous debut (also titled Beat With Us) back when Fred de Wilde fronted the band. “Shocking You” opens to reveal the band trying their hand at hard rock, which made sense since their late-‘60s psychedelic pop was played with heavy-handed riffs piped through the aggressive hiss of a fuzz box. Still, they refused to be pigeonholed as evidenced on the following “Velvet Heaven” where hazy harmonies were honed to sound a lot like what was going on then in and around the Los Angeles canyons. They even dabbled in kaleidoscopic country rock — “Simon Lee and the Gang,” “Serenade,” and “Don’t You See” play like a twangy triptych trimmed in psychedelic accoutrements. Reggis Mull’s “I Saw Your Face” gets the garage-rock treatment as Robbie VanLeeuwen juggles singing duties with some stellar sitar playing. “I’ll Follow the Sun” came from VanLeeuwen’s prior band the Motions.