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St Johns Wood Affair — St Johns Wood Affair
(Think Like a Key TLAK1154, 2023/2016, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2024-02-03

St Johns Wood Affair Cover art

Given the name, the trippy cover art, and the lysergic music, one could easily think that St Johns Wood Affair was a long lost treasure from 1969. But you would be so very wrong. St Johns Wood Affair is a British neo-psych band that was given its name by Patrick Campbell-Lyons of Nirvana (UK). They recorded their debut album in 2016 and Think Like a Key has remastered and expanded the album with seven bonus tracks for their first official worldwide release. Formed by Keith Smart (Nirvana UK and MI5) and his love for 60s psych pop, the band created a unique sonic journey through quirky songs, powered by using unusual instruments such as toy piano, slide guitar, and brass instruments. This reissue contains unreleased demos and covers of The Seeds’ “Where Is the Entrance to the Play?” and NIrvana’s “St Johns Wood Affair” and “Flowers for Friday.” The music across the fifteen songs runs the gamut from short pop psych gems to fantastic psych jams. And I do detect some similarity to The Luck of Eden Hall on the opening song “Electric Clouds” and the excellent. “Fantastic Book of Colours.” Some of the other album highlights include Smart’s ode to Sky Saxon on the summer of love “Sky Forever,” the very edgy “Love Light & Peace” with its slight Indian vibe, the catchy “Where Is the Entrance to the Play?,” and the experimental title track. The demos are so well put together and played that you would not immediately recognize them as demos without the notification in the song titles. So dig out your bell bottom jeans, tie-dyed shirt, and afghan vest and let St Johns Wood Affair flow and take on a journey wuth their sonic way-back machine.

Filed under: Reissues, 2016 releases, 2023 recordings

Related artist(s): Nirvana, St Johns Wood Affair

More info
http://thinklikeakey.bandcamp.com/album/st-johns-wood-affair

 

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