The Strange Flowers
Best Things Are Yet to Come

THE REVIEW

Area Pirata confirms itself as a crucial label at this moment for those interested in '60s inspired sounds: after the new album by No Strange Il sentiero delle tartarughe, it's now the turn of a double CD celebrating the career of Pisa's Strange Flowers titled "Best Things Are Yet to Come". Those who followed the mythical mid-'80s and early '90s garage and psychedelia revival will probably remember the Strange Flowers: during that period in Pisa, due to a strange conjunction, the most enlightened minds of the Italian psychedelic scene gathered, just think of the Useless Boys, the Birdmen of Alkatraz, the Liars, and the Steeplejack. At the time, there was a lot of confusion, so even groups like the Sick Rose and others who actually made excellent garage rock were considered psychedelic. The attitude of Strange Flowers instead was and is genuinely psycho-pop: those who loved the English psychedelia of the early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Misunderstood will find themselves at ease in the universe and the colorful and changing Cosmos created by the Pisa band. This collection compiles a large part of Strange Flowers' production: 5 tracks are, for the occasion, unreleased while 4 have been remastered, and the rest of the old material has been remixed. All tracks are presented in chronological order of writing: in practice, we are faced with a sort of "best of" of the group and a celebration and revisitation of their entire career. The only member who has always been stable over the years is the guitarist and singer Michele Marinò even though currently, the original core has reunited. Their most significant works are probably "Music for Astronauts" from 1993 and "Ortoflorovivaistica" from 2006. In this last album, there was also a small gem of lysergic music like "Strange Girl 2000", pure distilled essence of psychedelia which is here re-proposed in an unreleased alternative version recorded specifically for this album. But vintage nuggets are scattered in this precious anthology: from "Miriam on the Nile", an acoustic and "Barrettian" pearl, to "Carrin’ to Pie" and "Apples in your Eyes", which magically take us, as a journey back in time, to a past but ever-present era. It’s music that projects us directly from Marina di Pisa, depicted on the cover, to the Cosmos. The guitar is always rightly acidic, and the melodies are captivating and sixties-oriented with a taste for classy psychedelic pop. Highly recommended for all followers of the '60s verb. Available on Bandcamp at the following link https://areapiratarec.bandcamp.com/album/best-things-are-yet-to-come and at the Area Pirata website: (http://www.areapirata.com/index.php?lang=it).