The men behind this record, Australian DIY producer Mikey Young and Anthology Recordings founder Keith Abrahamsson, have aimed for a definite mood, namely “alone in a hot tub on a warm ‘70s summer night [when] a song you’ve never heard comes on the radio, sad but [with] a healing quality.”
Here are forgotten and overlooked soft rock, folk and powerpop heartbreakers that tap into the chilly sunset melancholy of the early ‘70s, when free love idealism turned sour and brown-acid flashbacks came with tears of regret.
Standouts include Norma Tanega’s bright and lonesome Illusion, Jode’s folk-jazz lament for the future Tomorrow Is Gone, and Dennis Stoner’s lambent, unhurried plea for understanding, Maybe Someday/Maybe Never. But Ron Cornelius’s group West hit hardest on their 1968 title track: “Feel so lonesome that it hardly seems worth living/No one’s here but you and me.”