Rebirth

Extremely rare  smart vinyl with an a great cover. Stunning condition for its age. Includes liner notes of the band.

The 1973 album by this New Zealand group was very much a folk-rocky relic of the late hippie era. The briskly strummed guitars, ebullient vocal harmonies, and relentlessly sunny lyrical glow of some cuts are like those of guys who've taken Traffic's "You Can All Join In" as their manifesto. Because it's all done without a pinch of irony, it'll drive those with a limited taste for feel-good rock up the wall and out the door. If you do enjoy gung ho folk-rock with a can-do rural flavor, though, it's well executed, but derivative. There are echoes of not only Traffic at their most pastoral, but also Crosby, Stills & Nash's harmonizing on songs like "Wooden Ships," as well as (less expectedly) some of the cartwheeling constructions of Yes -- a band that did have some folk-rock influences, though those haven't been widely acknowledged. Medieval melodic influences also pop up, as do, perhaps, the very lightest shades of the folkiest moments of the late-'60s Beatles.