Electric Prunes

This was a 2 until that last song single handedly dropped it to a 1.

Yeah, this is a load of guff. An extra star for not taking too long to end

It's an ice-cool aesthetic and a beautifully smudged and analogue production, but I don't know if compositionally I am particularly drawn to The Electric Prunes. Though they are certainly very interesting sounding, creating a brooding and complex atmosphere.

Aside from the toytown song at the end The Electric Prunes are a classic list band that i would never have heard but quite enjoyed, low 3

It's has more psychedelic rock sound than Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" that was released in the same 1967. But Jefferson Airplane at least had "Somebody to love" and "White rabbit" and this one here is a pretty dull album.

It's an album that I listened to.

These short punchy little 60’s psych-rockers have themselves a tidy little corner. I won’t mention this album in my memoir, but it will be in The Book with all our other 1001 album reviews alongside my project partner’s excellent memoir..

I listened to this album recently & thought I’d already reviewed it. Obviously not. But why then did I listen to it? Why did I play an album without the website telling me to? Was that free will? Spotify wouldn’t suggested such a thing (the prunes or free will). Did a friend recommended it? That’s something we used to do.

Why had I not heard about them before, Idk. This is great.

The Electric Prunes were impressive on the Nuggets compilation, and the other highlights on this album are excellent too, but 'Sold to the Highest Bidder' and 'The Toonerville Trolley' are awful tracks. It’s hard to decide between three and four stars, but I’ll round up because of the high points.

It was good and short. More artists should take inspiration.

Another album of unmemorable and unremarkable psychedelic rock from the 60s. There was a lot. I'm sure they contributed something to something back then but there's a reason this album is no longer widely known.

Nice and short. High 3

The first track is actually just Holdin Out For A Hero, and no I won't be elaborating. Not sure what genre this thought it was. At least it was short

Bands who make one album and just disappear off the planet

This may have been something special back in 1967, but I have my doubts even then, and it certainly isn’t now. It’s competently performed, but it just isn’t interesting.

I really enjoyed this - not earth shattering, but very in my wheelhouse of sounds, and I enjoyed so many songs from a mid century all male band that were concerned with female pleasure. I also thought the way they were playing with sounds from youth centered, square music, while not that pleasant to listen to at all times, and a real promo-punk edge.

2.5

What I've heard sounded like bad copies of the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. Then I'd rather listen to the better originals. 2/5

not my style

I mean good for their times I’m sure

wholesome psychedelia

Rating: 4.4/5 Short Review: A wonderfully fuzzy, strange little slice of 1967 psychedelia. The guitars are drenched in distortion, the vocals have this eerie, distant quality, and everything feels slightly drugged out. It’s not consistently brilliant, but when it hits, it’s fantastic. There’s something charming about how raw and experimental it sounds. Favorite Track: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night). That opening guitar sound is absolutely glorious. Psychedelic perfection.

Yes, fun 60's pop. Short songs, short album. Definitely a Beatles feel, but straying into some uniqueness. Not an everyday player, but I could see wanting to listen again.

Another great album and one of the psychedelic era’s best.

2,8 Highlights: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoy It Less)

Que onda con este disco? Empieza psicodélico que se ve que es lo estaba de moda, luego tienen una rola que es tipo satisfaction así como sugerente sexy y luego una como de grupo de teatro británico de esos de los 60. Mmmm lo bueno es que dura poco

Rien d'exceptionnel, mais rien d'affreux non plus

Quite easy to tell exactly what this album will sound like just based on the release year and the cover, no? Well, it was exactly what I was expecting. Pretty good psychedelic rock, that's about it.

Stomping sixties stuff. Kind of reminded me of early Zappa or Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. I liked it!

Great stuff.

Some of the best brit prog rock we've had, but it ain't no 4 star

Reading the public reviews of this, am I the only who liked Toonerville Trolley for the sheer absurdity of it all. Beyond that, it's not clear what differentiates this album from any of the numerous other psychedelic rock albums on this list.

The Beatles and Led Zeppelin influence shows lmao

actually quite good

Pretty unexceptional psychedelic fare. There a few tracks which stand out a little more, but it’s hard not to compare against early Pink Floyd and it just doesn’t feel as consistently strong.

This album is less than 30 minutes long and it still feels a bit like they had to scramble to fill it out. Basically it starts strong, then the last few track have a “will this do?” vibe.

The album wasn't particularly engaging and the sound is pretty outdated. It wasn't a fun listen

This was alright for a 60’s psychedelic rock album. Nothing (other than the last track which was ridiculous and did not belong in this album) stuck out as particularly really good or really bad. (3)

Pretty generic 60’s jangle with a couple of fun tracks but not enough to raise it higher

I love psychedelic music so im excited to listen to this, a band i do not know at all. Im disappointed, the first 2 tracks dont work for me. 3rd track is hauntingly beautiful. Track 4 is back to generic derivative, there's just not much to it, no soul there but maybe it sounded great at the time. I was hoping for a more dreamy sound. This doesnt engage me. The vocal melodies are poor & i dont like his voice. To me this sounds like something that was super trendy at the time but was not built to last. I've heard this all before but maybe ive heard it because of the Electric Prunes ?

Nice for the times. Better stuff from other bands, but highly influential.

One type of album I’m learning about with this project is the type with one lightning-in-a-bottle classic (here that’s “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night”), a bunch of filler on like an ephemeral-to-mediocre gradient, and one song that’s absolute misguided trash - here that is “Toonerville Trolley” which like several songs on the record shows the band quixotically chasing a particular vibe, but in this case an especially annoying one (jokey vaudeville novelty song) they especially egregiously fail to hit. Don’t know the reasons for the prevalence of this one-up, one-down plus filler format, but I guess it gives you a good sense of the artist’s range.

Prunes, yeah, thats about right. Fucking prunes. How the fuck does music like this make it on here.

1/5. Crap. Playing catch up and lower tolerance for boring crap.

This album was… different. I liked it and a lot of it feels covertly aggressive which I liked! The toonerville trolley was an unexpected twist. I don’t everything here sounds kind of sarcastic.

It's a little bit daft and not exactly an engaging listen, but it's short enough to the point where the whimsy is quite enjoyable at points.

I wanted so bad to like this. I just didn't. It's not even horrible. Just not for me.

Badly produced, hard to appreciate it

Started out fine but got worse

Bit different, enjoyed it

It was ok but didn’t wow me

4/10

Mostly fine. A few songs I did not enjoy.

This had that late 60 vibes which was part of some great music back then. Not that this was great, but it wasn't half bad either. Pretty average

If you were a young person on LSD during the "Summer of Love", this was probably pretty awesome. Hey, music fan, that reminds me... be sure sure to check out Les Claypool's Jam Band mockumentary, "Electric Apricot". It's a movie you should watch before you die. And it's free on YouTube right now.

Couple of ok tracks

it's okay

Look, I like psychedelic rock, everyone should be allowed to have one or two Toonerville Trolleys on their albums. Nevertheless, not that good. 2.5/5

A really fun album from my favorite era of music. Onie is a nice song it reminds me of Velvet Underground.

This was allmover the place as far as musical influence. Psychedelic, folk, pop, and .....ragtime. not something I'm going back to but interesting enough for one listen.

A fun album with no stand out songs and a sound that really screams 1960s to me. It might have influenced later bands, otherwise I don't really know why it fits on this list if it wasn't the first or really early with something new.

This album was okay, it sounds okay, has a 60s sound, but nothing really stood out, it’s just another band from the 60s

Maybe this was the one that got to a lot of people as an influence but this sounds like 40000 other 60s bands without much unique about it. Pretty far into this project and man some of these hardly seem "essential"

Please lord release me from the shackles of terrible white bands from the 60s that are found on this list.

Eh, I like the creative psychedelic happenings, but this was one of those albums that was actually difficult to hear. Even with my earbuds, and phone on full blast, I struggled to hear the music. This isn't necessarily because of its age either; there are album released in the 1940s with better production. Favorite Track: "I Had Too Much To Dream(Last Night".

mijn oren bloeden na sold to the highest bidder en toonerville trolley maakt t wel af best wel doodoo

Hmmmm. This album has me generally befuddled on what to give as a fair rating. Let's start with the last track, which many people cry is the worst and weirdest on this album. "Toonerville Trolley" is certainly weird, and as I was listening, I thought, "Man this is a rip-off of 'Rocky Raccoon' by The Beatles," complete with the old-timey Wild West saloon-style piano and the silly storytelling but… Ha ha, these guys released the song in '67 and "Rocky" did not come out until '68. Perhaps the Beatles took a bit of inspiration from the Electric Prunes? Then, the song "Lovin", which is about as subtle as the Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" (which coincidentally is another example of the Prunes being first with thinly veiled sexual lyrics and The Beatles coming next). "Lovin" features a line that made me chuckle, saying that if you don't measure up, your girl will leave you. Ha! As a female, I can attest that this is most certainly true. There were some moments within this album that I thought were not bad or were even verging on pretty good, but it still didn't collectively knock my socks off like other tracks I have rated four or five stars. I give it a solid three right down the middle.

I never heard of this and I also kinda understand why it never had crossed my path. Mediocre outdated sixties psychedelic rock. The more uptempo rock songs are ok, but the slower songs are quite terrible and weird. Luckily It’s just 30 minutes. I understood that they were innovative and using techniques to create the psychedelic sounds and maybe that is the reason they were added to the book, maybe they were one of the first, but definitely not the best

Entertaining, spacey

It's interesting to listen to the quality of an album actively deteriorate as it goes along. The opening track, I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), is easily the best thing here: a dark, multi-phased psych odyssey about longing for love. The next few tracks are serviceable but somewhat forgettable in the greater 60s rock scene. Around the halfway point, though, things really start to fall apart as the band leans into full on novelty tracks. I appreciate the attempts at humor, but these songs just come across as obnoxious. For example, on The King is Counting House, the band performs some faux-baroque instrumentation and the lead singer puts on a terrible British accent. Don't get me started on The Toonerville Trolley, which sounds like the Beatles' at their wackiest but way less fun. It's a shame, because that first track showed they had true talent. If only they could marshal that talent for a full album.

Mix of Beatles and stones influenced tracks, plus a few songs which are just from the era and fairly generic

Rip off of the Doors and the Beatles. Similar era but this feels like a poor copy.

Anything but electric

Struggled to finish this and it's only half an hour long

This starts out as a pretty good psychedelic rock album but then slowly degrades song by song until you get to the Toonerville Trolley

Very charming, surprised by the low rating

This sounds...lighter than most psychedelic rock I'm familiar with? The use of the wah-wah pedal is prominent all throughout. Falls flat as the album goes on, however. Culminating in a...show tune-like track for the finale? This was a weird and forgettable listen.

3.5/5.

Beatles reheated nachos

Vocally reminds me of early floyd. some good psych rock here, that said, the first few tracks are MUCH better than the rest. Standouts are i had too much to dream, Bangles, Onie and About a Quarter to Nine.

I can’t exactly determine what I think about this but my gut says I just don’t like it

Alguna que otra canción estuvo bien, pero las ultimas muy malas.

A pretty forgettable 60s psychadelic garage rock album, that feels a bit dated even for something from the '60s. Not much more to say about it imo!

A pleasant slice of 60s psychedelia. There were some hits and misses as is often the case, but the highlights 'I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night', 'Onie' justify a strong 3 star rating.

A fun but inconsistent little garage rock/pop album with psychedelic flourishes (reverb-drenched vocals and drums, tremolo and backwards guitars). Side one is definitely the stronger half, with the opener and ‘Are You Loving Me More…’ the best tracks, and the other four all fairly decent too. Side two is a lot more inconsistent: ‘Get Me to the World on Time’ and ‘Try Me on for Size’ are pretty strong, but the bizarre ragtime-style album closer ‘The Toonerville Trolley’ is awful (especially vocally). But despite that track’s best efforts, it still clings on to the bottom end of 3 stars.

A largely forgotten group . . . that probably could have stayed that way. I can see their inclusion on a list of their 1001 influential albums based on their innovation for the time. Did I NEED to hear this before I die? Don't think so. As with many albums from back then, at least they kept it short.

nice enough

nope, exhausting

more odd psychedelic debuts, this time from the electric prunes, a band that formed in los angeles that had interesting takes when it comes to lyrical songwriting and strange, almost haunting takes on garage rock music. the album itself was created after a few hit singles got massive to the point where the band was racking in the cash and going on tours. while the band tried to work on their own material, the big majority of the music ended up being produced and written by other parties, with only one new song in the album actually written by the group's songwriter. prunes band members got frustrated because of this and considered a lot of tracks filler or better off not featured on the record. uh... wow. this record was something alright! a lot of early psy-rock tends to be hit or miss, at least on this list. the mixing is very wet and quiet, like a majority of the album was performed dozens of feet away. i guess it is kinda creepy, but there's plenty of good creepy out there... this one is just weird. interesting enough, but mostly weird warbling, guitar effects... and once the second part of the album plays it ventures into this weird baffling whimsical adventure. i really don't know what to make of it. there's a few standouts thankfully... but if i were to really describe this album to someone who was curious about it? ever played "the town with no name" for the CDTV? this record would perfectly suit that game.

Short, not very sweet. Liked the front better than the back - am familiar with the title track so that was nice - but it seemed to lose focus after a while. Not the worst I've ever heard, worse psych on this list by a mile, but not worthy of being here.

Label: Get out there and find me another Doors, A&R: we've got Electric Prunes, Label: shite name, get them in Label: Well what's it like? Studio: they are pretty shite, music is dire and the lyrics are juvenile nonsense Label: Excellent, don't care, I'll still flog it. Kids will buy anything

感觉这个背景里一直接续的酥麻触电般的旋律线比较魔幻

I had trouble enjoying this. Maybe it was the minor heat stroke, maybe it was the music?

Nothing bad, but nothing too special here

Weird but not in a memorable way. I should have written my review sooner as it’s only been a couple of days and already I’m struggling to recall anything distinctly, which if nothing else is a sign it wasn’t all that good. Definitely not one to remember or relisten to.

The Electric Prunes are a bit bland. This is a bag of standard, shriveled supermarket prunes. Next to it you have a Jumbo Medjool date! If you've ever browsed the whole-foods aisle (or on my holiday to Morocco), you’ll know that a proper Medjool date is the undisputed king of the shelf. It’s supposed to be massive, sticky, naturally sweet, and oozing a rich, caramel-like luxury. Musically, however, this album doesn't quite reach those heights. It's a bit small in caliber, slightly uneven in its texture, and at times undeniably bland compared to the date. They wanted to be a decadent, gooey Medjool but failed. Thanks to the swirly garage-pop production, it's just about an edible snack. It has just enough trippy, vintage fiber to get the job done. It won't blow your mind, but it absolutely keeps you regular.  But I prefer dates!

A few little highlights in this generally mid physcodelic rock album. It didn't seem particularly groundbreaking and there were a couple of legitimately ropey songs. At least it was mercifully short. Not good or bad enough to remember.

Didn’t really connect with the music nor with the lyrics. As background music, it is completely fine… Favourite songs: - get me to the world on time - about a quarter to nine

Beatles ordered on temu