Status Quo
Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo

The first album by Status Quo released in 1968 certainly represents an important piece in the lineup of English psychedelic albums from the late '60s.

Anyone passionate about this musical period, concentrated in just a handful of years, will surely appreciate the work of the five English musicians, capable of transforming the psychedelic currents that were rampant in London and beyond at that time into an enjoyable pop album. In the sound of Status Quo, distorted guitars pushed to the extremes seem to be the formula capable of opening the doors of success for the group. Just listen to the "bizarre" guitar intros and solos of tracks such as Black Veils Of Melancholy, Sunny Cellophane Skies, and especially the famous Pictures Of Matchstick Man (the leading track which gives the album its title) to confirm this strange mix of English pop and Hendrix-like psychedelia. The two guitarists Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, the band’s masterminds, play a bit roughly on their instruments but it is thanks to the good melodies, their singing, and the organ of their companion Roy Lynes that they manage to craft a series of potential chart hits. Furthermore, the use of as many possible studio effects as were available at the time packages an album, released by Pye, often filled with dreamy psychedelia, and it is in tracks like Elizabeth Dream, Technicolor Dreams, and the Hendrix-inspired Gentlemen Joe’s Sidewalk Cafe that Status Quo give their best. This is followed by 2 other tracks that are somewhat outside the context of the album: the rock 'n' roll ballad Sheila, a bit dated, and the famous Spick and Specks which adds nothing interesting to the original by the Bee Gees. But it is in pieces like Ice in the Sun, also released as a single, and When My Mind Is Not Live that make us remember this Picturesque Matchstickable Messages as a good debut album. It was a period at the end of the sixties worth rediscovering, along with the band's second album, before the hard rock turn with blues undertones of the 70s that would see Status Quo, willingly or not, fill stadiums all over the world.