The Green Pajamas
To The End Of The Sea
Green Monkey Records

By the time Luna Kafé launched its first moonthly e-zine in November 1996, The Green Pajamas had already released five albums and a handful of seven-inches plus appearances on even more compilations. Main songwriter Jeff Kelly had also released several solo cassettes and the band were highly esteemed in legendary fanzines such as Unhinged, Bucketfull of Brains and Ptolemaic Terrascope.

And here they still are; they have outlasted most bands in rock history but they are (still) probably among the most underrated. But they keep on releasing new music, year by year. Thankfully.

This is their 18th album as far as I know (not counting their two live albums) and this time it's released on vinyl by the good people at Sugarbush Records outta England. The CD version is on Green Monkey Records (who claim it's the band's 33rd album...) as usual.

To The End Of the Sea is a typical GP album in a way a concept album even. Augmented by strings, ancient synthesizers and horns it is a collection of baroque pop/psych songs. Opening track "Will The Ships Go Down" is kept in a GP sound we have learnt to know from before; Rolling, rolling, rolling drums and bass, droning guitars, a fuzzbox'ed vocal and a minor key tune. But what is that at about 01:00? A Moog synthesizer sneaking in and out of view, wow!

There are several standout songs on this album. "All Of The Starry Sky" with it's delicate piano (and there is that Moog again!). "When Juliet Smiles" with Macca-bass from Joe Ross is another one. And speaking of mr. Ross; he is a bass player of the most melodic kind. As this is more of a sixties/psych/pop album, he has free rein; wonderful! I guess he has heard the B-side of "Paperback Writer" more than once!

Fun "fact": The Green Pajamas is probably the band in the pop/rock world with the highest waltz rate per record. And here we find several of them; Four of the first seven are waltzes: "White Lighthouse", "All Of The Starry Sky", "Madness To Burn" and "Who Is The Girl".

You may not need all GP albums, but if you get hooked, there's no way you can escape the magic of the Pajamas. And if you miss new material from Rain Parade, Dog Age, or more from that band with "Rain" on the B-side, why not check this one out?

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