TROLL - ANIMATED MUSIC 1969

Apparently hailing from chicago, the troll only released one album, though they did have several other singles prior to this record, including a couple of very minor chart appearances...this album, which is hard to classify, sounds as if it was thrown together rather haphazardly, as some of the tuns sound like they were recorded at different times. some of this material, like the decent " i've only myself to blame," is very beatles or early bee gees sounding. the album runs the gamut from soft and dreamy folk-rock to hard pop/psych to vaudeville nostalgia. werewolf and witchbreath is a fine, somewhat eerie, hard rock number that sounds a litle bit like some of the detroit groups, like Src or Frijid Pink, of this era. There's some cool guitar and weird keyboards on this cut, and also some fairly creepy lyrics. satin city news, the 45 from this release, is a standard but fairly good blues-rock commercial number. mr abernathy, a song about a fundamentally decent and honest but nevertheless doomed politician , mirrors the type of campaign songs that were prevalent during the 1920's or 1930's. fritz und sweeney is perhaps the most annoying song on the album, a tale about two shoemaker's sons who reach adulthood in germany at the time of hitler. have you seen the queen? is a not terribly successful comic number with pretentious , upper class british voices. everybody's child is an ok but typical 60's rock song. mourning of the day is a good psychedelic song with a driving beat and insistent keyboards.
for me, the highlight of the disc is professor pott's pornographic projector, an 1890's- 20's type tune, complete with varispeed vocals, funny lyrics, kazoos etc., with a great bassline that recounts the humorous saga of an eccentric professor who shows pornographic events on his machine. many groups in the 60's did these throwback type songs, and this is one of the better ones.. overall, the strengths of this album ( particularly werewolf and witchbreath and professor pott's...) outweigh the drawbacks..it's disjointed, and some of the tracks are rather weak, but worth investigation for the two stellar tracks nonetheless..
By Stephen F Mulcahy (United States)

Tracks :

# Satin City News
# Mr. Abernathy
# Fritz und Sweeney
# Everybody's Child
# Solitude
# I've Only Myself to Blame
# Professor Pott's Pornographic Projector
# Have You Seen the Queen
# Mourning of the Day
# A Winter's Song
# Werewolf and Witchbreath

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Artwork Included