…In Search Of Brighter Colors

Sky Saxon’s second album with his late-1980s band Fire Wall, ...In Search Of Brighter Colors, was released on New Rose in 1988. It was one of the final statements of Sky and company’s quixotic attempt to stage a full-fledged comeback on the retro psych scene of the 80s.

The music on ...In Search Of Brighter Colors is rather more mainstream even than Fire Wall’s first outing, 1986’s ...A Groovy Thing. What the ensemble gains in commercial convention they lose in personality: while the band is very good, and Sky tackles the vocals with his reliable panache, there is something missing from the proceedings. For the first time in his career, Sky Saxon released a whole album of music that was clearly co-written, with lyrics that don’t seem dear to his heart and melodic structures that threaten to get in the way of his erratic and exhilarating thrusts and parries.

(Note that the title of the album is misspelled — …In Search Of Brigther Colors — not only on the typeset back cover but, more unforgivably, in the day-glo psych lettering of the front cover. The correct title is used on the LP’s labels, and on the CD version of the album.)

The fact that Sky’s co-writers on ...In Search Of Brighter Colors are long-time collaborators Mars Bonfire of Steppenwolf and manager Frank Beeson help keep the familiar, canonical feel of the album — when I say that the music sounds more mainstream, that is not a criticism of any dullness or lack of heart, merely an observation that they seem to have striven too hard to please some imagined mass audience. No, the vibe is 1960s psych, as expected, and you can count on Sky Saxon’s warm growl throughout.

The album begins with what must be one of Sky’s best titles, if nothing else: "I Hear The Mountains Crash". It’s a big, booming rock song, serving notice that the guys are incorporating an updated 1980s sophistication, tempered by Bonfire’s cheesy little organ. Sky sounds good, singing the (strictly pre-written) lyrics with confidence. There is a very nice lead guitar throughout. "Baby Baby (Be Patient)" comes next, aggressive with a little funk groove.

"Lightning Lightning" is where the ambitiousness of the songwriting begins to show itself; under a 60s organ and loud, professional guitar sound there are some very nice chords supporting unexpected melodies. "Come On, Pretty Girl" is a Chuck Berry-style rocker with the album’s signature party-circus organ wheedling away. But the album dives back into the tone set by “Lightning, Lightning” on the even-more-complicated "Put Something Sweet Between Your Lips", whose tee-hee title belies a quiet, dramatic tune with a trickier structure than Sky fans might be used to.

One of the album’s best songs, and one of Sky’s most enjoyable 1980s moments, comes with "Kick Kick". It’s simple, tribal, and short, and audaciously catchy. A shouted chorus echoes the title over and over while Sky handles that extreme rarity in his career — an unusual time signature. "Barbie Doll Look" is led along by its stinging, insistent lead guitar line, as Sky skillfully makes the most of the playful lyrics and catchy melody.

Blatantly retro (some might say exploitatively so), the self-referential "Paisley Rocker" finds Sky unabashed about the era in which he first gained notoriety and its popular resurgence some twenty years after the fact. Keyboards alternately emit computer bleeps and thin, tacky whines, while Sky does his best with a song that just doesn’t match his style somehow. Best part: “Put on my paisley and rediscover what the world has barely seen.” Um, yeah.

"The Big Screen" seems to address people who strive to be movie stars, and namechecks several examples. (Most seem to date from decades past, in a different-generation way rather than a remembering-the-classics way. By some accounts, Sky Saxon was in his 50s by the time ...In Search Of Brighter Colors was recorded.) The album ends with the comparative oddity "Come-A Here Right Now". It marries two incongruous parts together — a dramatic, plodding mid-tempo section, and a fast rock chorus. The band ineptly transitions between the two, to a degree that you think it must be on purpose. This is, more interestingly, also the first example of Sky’s vibrato-filled, showbizzy Elvis crooning, which he flirted with as a young man before The Seeds but hadn’t touched since.

World Fantastic

...In Search Of Brighter Colors was released in the US under the name World Fantastic; however, there are differences between the two.

Only nine of …In Search Of‘s ten songs are on World Fantastic — "I Hear The Mountains Crash" is only heard here. Furthermore, World Fantastic contains three songs not found on the French LP.

The cover art of World Fantastic is totally different — a crude paste-up job featuring Sky amid pictures of animals that look like they were taken from an encyclopedia — not the awesome retro-psychedelia of the non-US LP.

 

CD and download versions

A two-on-one CD was released in 1989 pairing the non-US versions of both Fire Wall albums: …In Search Of Brighter Colors + ̷...A Groovy Thing, which compiles all ten songs from …In Search Of plus all the tracks from ...A Groovy Thing (a.k.a. Destiny's Children). This disc is a necessity for any Sky Saxon CD collector as it contains most of Sky’s work with Fire Wall.

The CD is long out of print, though you may find used copies for sale. In May 2013, this double CD became available as an online download — a bargain, as it is two albums for a single-album price.

You can also look for vinyl copies of ...In Search Of Brighter Colors for sale.

Track listing

1. "I Hear The Mountains Crash"
2. "Baby Baby (Be Patient)"
3. "Lightning Lightning"
4. "Come On, Pretty Girl"
5. "Put Something Sweet Between Your Lips"
6. "Kick Kick"
7. "Barbie Doll Look"
8. "Paisley Rocker"
9. "The Big Screen"
10. "Come-A Here Right Now"

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