Status Quo “Messages From the Status Quo” 1968. US version of their debut (released as Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo in their native UK). Psychedelic pop that swirls and bops along gaily through lemon drop fields and lollipop forests. It’s adorably ridiculous. The band, and album, came up recently as we were deciding what Camper Van Beethoven records to cull – I absolutely love CVB’s cover of Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men.” And while I do know the original, I haven’t really listened to the rest of the album. It didn’t do well upon its release, failing to chart in the UK, but the single “Pictures of Matchstick Men” went to #7 and charted in the US at #12. It’s for sure the best track on the album. The opener is pretty good though that track, “Black Veils of Melancholy” (released as the second single), and “Sunny Cellophane Sky” are both pretty obvious rehashes of “Matchstick Men” – I think they just switched around a few notes and changed the lyrics. The third single, “Ice in the Sun” is also pretty good – it went to #8 in the UK and to #70 in the US. Other songs are OK too but “Gentleman Joe’s Sidewalk Café” sounds 100% like a Beatles ripoff, “Paradise Flat” channels Cream and Jimi Hendrix plus a dash of Jim Morrison spoken “poetry,” and “Spicks and Specks” is a cover a very early Bee Gees song (but could have been by the Monkees.) All that said, it’s a fun, bright and cheery record that is a great snapshot of the era.