Now Sounds
2008
Half Past Midnight: The Staccatos And Beyond
About This Album
Ottawa's the Five Man Electrical Band were an unwittingly fine example of how rock & roll began to shapeshift during the mid- to late '60s. The Five Men Electrical Band began life as the Staccatos in 1963, and by the time the Staccatos cut their first singles for Capitol Records' Canadian branch in 1966, they'd become a fine pop band with a talent for folk-rock in the manner of the Byrds and the Hollies. But when the Staccatos began recording their second album for Capitol in Hollywood, CA in 1969, psychedelia had made more than a few fine pop bands sound obsolete, so the guys began dipping their toes into more Baroque and lysergic waters. Taking their new name from a tune written by leader Les Emmerson, the Five Man Electrical Band's "debut" album is a charming relic of the era when seemingly every band that knew how to string two hooks together were trying to create their own Sgt. Pepper's, and Now Sounds/Cherry Red have reissued the album on CD along with a handful of Staccatos single sides as Half Past Midnight: The Staccatos and Beyond. If the results are a far cry from what the Fab Four wrought, it's well-crafted studio pop with a faint but pleasing psychedelic edge and just the right dash of attitude here and there.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 and 15)

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