Glass Family - Electric Band 1969

"House of Glass" is the impressive opening track, full of tension and convincing vocals over a 13 Floor Elevators style music, "Born In the USA" is an almost straight R'n'B track, complete with harmonica (but it sounds a little phony and out of place), "Once Again" and "Sometimes You Wander" are nice soft-pop tunes (California style), "The Means" is an excellent hallucinogenic flying into the Beatles territory, "Do You Remember" is not far from Pearls Before Swine. "I Want To See My Baby" is a much more successful attempt on the psyche/blues style than "Born in the USA", with a nice fuzz guitar, reminding "Death Sound Blues" of Country Joe & The Fish, "Lady Blue" is basically a straight rock song, besides the psychedelic arrangement. Then we have the organ-based "Passage #17", the country-pop "Mr.Happy Glee" with nice mandolin, "Guess I'll Let You Go", a superb love song, where the minimal orchestration gives it inner depth, and the lysergic instrumental "Agorn" which starts with a drum storm that leads to a guitar riff, reminding very much "This can't be today" of Rain Parade.
All songs were penned by Ralph Parrett (except two of them that were written by the band), but I must mention the producer Richard Podolor, who did an amazing job here. Given that this record was released by Warner Brothers, the production did not buried the originality of the band, in order to make a record that would sell, but, in fact, brought the best elements in the surface and out of the many styles that Glass Family were apparently playing at the time, created an amazing record that owes to all and nobody, avoiding to sound generic or exploito.
It's a pity that Glass Family released only this LP: if they had continue (especially in the direction of 'House of Glass' or 'I Guess I'll let You Go'), they could have created a masterpiece.

Tracklist:
01.House of Glass - 3:12
02.Born In the U.S.A. - 2:30
03.Once Again - 2:36
04.Sometimes You Wander (Henry'sTune) - 2:59
05.The Means - 4:10
06.Do You Remember? - 3:22
07.I Want To See My Baby - 3:43
08.Lady Blue - 2:48
09.Passage #17 - 2:32
10.Mr. Happy Glee - 2:35
11.Guess I'll Let You Go - 2:44
12.Agorn (Elements of Complex Variables) - 4:12
13.Teenage Rebellion - 1:41
14.David's Rap - 2:05
15.Guess I'll Let You Go (45 Mix) - 2:55

Glass Family;
Ralph Parrett – Vocals, Guitar
David Capiloato – Keyboards, Bass
Gary Green – Drums Percussion