Absolutely Allentown

• Artist: Various Artists
• Total Time: 78:04
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Rock

Review

The compilation Allentown Anglophile demonstrated that there was a fair amount of decent rock produced in the not-so-big city of Allentown, PA, in the 1960s, though it was fairly derivative of trends in the British Invasion, psychedelia, and soul music. Absolutely Allentown unearths more such worthy material from the time, and in fact a few bands (including the Shillings, the King's Ransom, and D.B.L.I.T.Y.) appear on both anthologies. It's not as consistent as Allentown Anglophile, however, by virtue of the inclusion of a few post-'60s tracks that don't measure up to the earlier stuff on any count. Starting with the better '60s-era items (which do comprise most of this 30-track CD), however, the Scott Bedford Four have a good commercial mid-'60s rock sound that borrows from soul and the British Invasion, particularly on "You Turned Your Back on Me." Occasionally (as on "Manhattan Angel" and "Last Exit to Brooklyn"), they also draw from the harmonies of the Beach Boys and more mainstream groups like Jay & the Americans to pleasant effect. It's also cool to hear a ripoff, but a good one, of the Dave Clark Five on the Jordan Brothers' "It's a Shame"; it wasn't only snotty bluesy British groups that garage bands were imitating, and it's good to have that even tacitly acknowledged by the reissue of a recording such as this. The King's Ransom and the Shillings offer some solid sounds with more explicit folk-rock and Beatlesque influences, and the Rondells' "Parking in the Kokomo" is actually one of the best Beach Boys-inspired obscurities you'll hear. But the disc goes downhill when it goes beyond the '60s for a few tracks, a few of which are quite lame local mainstream rock to be harsh, though Slim Pickins' "Out on the Farm" is OK '70s country-rock, and Daddy Licks sounds like a bar band Elvis Costello. Even discounting the weakest cuts, however, that still leaves 20-plus fair to quite good relics of the Allentown rock scene, refreshingly looking beyond (though not ignoring) the usual garage raunch that dominates many such '60s-oriented regional compilations. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi

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