" height="71">Resurrection
RPM, 2003
rating: 2.5/5
reviewer: filmore mescalito holmes
It isn't often you can say, 'here it is! The album you've been waiting for that was 34 years in the making!' Then again you probably weren't waiting for this, were you? Formed in 1966, the Aerovons were signed to Parlaphone Records, hung out with the Beatles during the "Get Back" sessions that produced Let It Be, and released their only single in September of '69 while their LP was shelved indefinitely amidst the band's complete disintegration.
Much like a mix by a DJ, where a performer chooses an arrangement of tracks, puts them together in a unique way and order, and releases it under his/her own name, this CD tears apart, and in some cases merely tweaks, the Beatles and puts them back together in a relatively interesting way. As such it would be unfair to give Tom Hartman, the songwriter-producer of this ill fated album, too much credit as an artistic visionary. But there is skill here and Resurrection, in itself, is a unique, disposable, happy-go-lucky, coming-of-age mash up of sixties bubblegum that's almost too sweet for its own good. I leave it to you to decide if they were heavily influenced by or merely reworked the Beatles.
The real question this album raises is how many other listenable projects are the gatekeepers letting fester in a world where at any given time only 20% of all the music ever recorded is legally available for purchase? Sure, there are thousands of CDs that probably never should have been released, which did quite poorly and cost everybody a lot of money (more so the artists than the labels of course) but there have been just as many that weren't supposed to be released and ended up surprising everyone. By restricting the flow of music, the industry creates a false but far more lucrative and controllable market for their trained formulas and hype projects ensuring the Top 40 will always be equally distributed between the big five [Sony, EMI, UMG, AOLTimeWarner, & BMG] who release 85% of all music to ensure they remain the big five. How many Aerovons have passed away unheard because they might not have been the most profitable investment?
1. World Of You
2. Resurrection
3. Say Georgia
4. With Her
5. Quotes And Photos
6. Words From A Song
7. Bessy Goodheart
8. Something Of Yours
9. She's Not Dead
10. The Years
11. Everything's Alright
12. The Children
13. The Train
14. Song For Jane
15. Here
16. World of You [demo version]