RECOMMENDED RECORD: Various Artists: American Baroque (Ace double LP)

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes as a double set in a gatefold sleeve with extensive liner notes and credits.

Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . .

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The words “baroque pop” may be inexact but most people get the meaning: pop songs embellished by orchestration. Cellos, harpsichords, violins and such.

In the post-Pepper/post-Nights in White Satin period when musicians were stretching themselves there was quite a lot of such orchestration which, if not strictly baroque, certainly elevated a lot of pop music.

Some might point to Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale as in the vanguard of the style.

American artists took to the style in a big way, notably the Left Banke with the glorious Don't Walk Away Renee and Pretty Ballerina.

If some of the British acts went a bit quirky – or in many cases overreached themselves – the Americans (with an assimilated background in Hollywood musicals) seemed to get a very firm grip on the handle.

Musician, archivist, writer and record collector Bob Stanley is the ideal person to collate a 24-song collection of American baroque which sidesteps Left Banke but brings to light the great Emmet Rhodes' group Merry-Go-Round and Montage with I Shall Call Her Mary (written by Michael Brown after he quit Left Banke).

So here are long-forgotten bands like Appaloosa, the Pleasure Fair, HP Lovecraft, the Blades of Grass and Common People alongside the better known Stone Poneys with the Mike Nesmith-penned Different Drum (the first time most of us heard Linda Ronstadt), the Association (with Barefoot Gentleman although Windy, Cherish and Along Came Mary were better known), the Monkees (the first recording of Mr Webster), Nico with Jackson Browne's folksy The Fairest of the Seasons (from her excellent Chelsea Girl album) and Norah Guthrie (Woody's daughter).

Here too is the extraordinary voice of Judy Henske (in fragile mode with the band Rosebud) who appeared recently pulled From the Vaults.

This double album comes with extensive liner notes by Stanley.

We can't see this music on any download site but someone has posted 19 of the 24 songs on Spotify here.

But frankly – because of those informative liner notes – you need the gatefold vinyl.

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You can read more about the album at Ace Records here and order it through Southbound Records here