*Taken from AC Article on Beard
I’ve been meaning to write a review of this album for ages, but I just never seem to get round to it. Wendy & Bonnie’s Genesis was originally released in 1969 but unfortunately due to the label going bust very few people ever heard it. Fortunately though it was re-released by sundazed a while back and it’s incredible. Genesis is not just another Psychedelic Folk album its a masterpiece, teeming with the kind of serene ideology that you would expect from San-Franciscan flower power but with some darker undertones thrown in for good measure.
The album kicks of with the slightly kitsch beat stomp of ‘Let Yourself Go Another Time’ with some serious Hammond business and the line “Things would be so simple if everyone felt our way” …. great stuff.
I really cant say enough good about this record so I’m just going to run down what the stand-out tracks are for me.
‘The Paisley Window Pane’ is a Hippy Folk masterpiece where soft ever-changing basslines lull sweetly underneath lush guitar picks and heavily reverbed vocal harmonies.
Every Super Furry Animals Fan will recognise ‘By The Sea’, which to my mind is one of the best Folk records ever created. Not being much of a city person (but living in Berlin) this seminal moment on Genesis ranks alongside Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Happening Brother’ for great Cityworld Escape tunes.
‘5 O’clock In The Morning’ is an amazing track with amazing production and some serious intricacies and dis-chords which wouldn’t seem out of place on a Four:Tet tune.
Directly following is ‘Endless Pathway’ which starts with a rolling bassline that Manu Di Bango would be jealous of before turning into more soft Folky loveliness.
And finally there’s ‘Conventional Man’ (a demo version on the re-release). ‘Conventional Man’ is definitely one of the best tracks on the album, steeped in genius-like simplicity its a song a bloke who most likely would have been referred to as a ’square’ in 60’s road movies whose wife eventually leaves him in order to top herself (this is where the darker undertones kick). Nonetheless sung incredibly sweetly and with incredible beauty by the then 17 yr old Wendy and 13yr Old Bonnie Flower.
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