Search - Klaatu :: Peaks

Almost all of the best

03/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have vintage copies of the first 3 albums of Klaatu (3:47, Hope and Sir Army Suit. I also owned a Capitol squish CD of 3:47 and Hope. The music presented in this mix is the most of the best that they have produced. The music clarity is unpresidented. It appears they took the orginal tracks and used them for this release, not the Capitol mix. The only tracks missing that also represent some more of the best are: Mr. Manson, Prelude, Long Live Politzania, Silly Boys, Sell Out Sell Out, A Million Miles Away, and Magentaline.
I hope they will release these also soon, or their later albums presented in the same way."

The Lonliest of Cult Bands

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 02/14/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"One of the most unusual footnotes in 70's rock has to be Canadian band Klaatu. Releasing an exquisitely produced, sonically breathtaking debut to little or no notice in 1976, they began what most figured would be a slow sink into obscurity. Then some "tone deaf idiot" (from the collection of clippings in the liner notes) wrote an article that maybe, just maybe, this faceless and nameless band was really the Beatles undercover. Suddenly radio stations went apewire, running Klaatu specials (it was how I first heard about the album) and playing are-they-or-aren't-they games with the album art, the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" and the production epic "Sub Rosa Subway."



Listening to these songs now, it's hard to fathom how so many people suckered into the hype (only "Sub Rosa Subway" approaches the Beatles comparisons), but it also took the band's career and effective drowned it. As soon as the second album Hope revealed the band to be little more than a decent prog-rock trio in the vein of Yes or even Genesis ("Hope" is a full blown concept album), Klaatu was shunted off to pop-trivia land. Yet, when you listen to these songs as a group, there is little reason to say that Klaatu shouldn't have been every bit as popular as The Alan Parsons Project.



The three members of Klaatu were pop geeks of the highest order. The sixties flirtations of "Routine Day" (from Sir Army Suit) again begged those maligned comparisons from the first album, but some 25 years later, it just sounds like highly dedicated craftsmen working their skills to optimum effect. Even the Capitol Records enforced "Have Hits or Die" recording Endangered Species has its high points, the ballad that closes this collection ("All Good Things") should have been a breakthrough hit. (And the delightful "Sell Out Sell Out" - not included here - is a leeringly funny take on the heavy hand that their label was pushing on them.) By then, the band was being shunted aside for LA Studio pros, and the album was robbed of much of the group's personality.



"Peaks" - as a single CD - misses a few choice cuts. "So Said The Lighthouse Keeper," "Sell Out Sell Out" and "Juicy Lucy" are particularly missed. The set is heavy on the 3:47 Est debut, with five of that CD's eight songs finding space here. If you don't mind the fact that the band's albums are highly derivative yet very good, this primer might lead you back to any of Klaatu's five studio discs."