The Apples In Stereo Album: “Her Wallpaper Reverie [EP]”

This EP (yes, it's an EP, not an album) is just irresistable. The proper songs are uniformly amazing and contain so much wonderful, spirited '60s-influenced songcraft. This is one of those albums that just puts a big goofy smile on my face when I listen to it (and I mean that as high compliment).

As mentioned by other reviewers, there are six proper songs, interspersed with nine short, mostly instrumental "themes." ("Ruby, Tell Me" has vocals, but at less than a minute, doesn't really qualify as a proper song.) I find most of the instrumental weirdness between the proper tracks to be interesting rather than annoying. To me, the strange, jarring sounds and ambient undertones establish a sort of flip-side to the sunny proper tunes -- perhaps depicting the dark side of a bad trip. They are mostly very short and easily digested, although "Drifting Patterns" lasts too long and can get on my nerves with its repetitive notes.

If I were to quibble, I could say that "Y2K" is already a bit dated due its title and subject matter. But take it as a sort of topical song of the day.

All in all, a GREAT psychedelic effort. As much as I enjoy their poppy new "The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone," I would like the Apples to release a proper album in the same vein as "Her Wallpaper Reverie." They might not want to be The Olivia Tremor Control, but this EP proves that they certainly could go more in that direction, with excellent results, if they wanted to.

Her Wallpaper Reverie is simultaneously one of the best and worst CDs I've listened to in a long time. How can it be both at once, you're asking? Well, it's rather like this...

On one hand, you have the Apples' trademark ability to synthesize 60s pop down to absolutely brilliant and tasty pop nuggets. "The Shiney Sea" floats by like a lone cloud on a sunny day, "Ruby" almost effortlessly manages to sound both like early Beatles and create a song as catchy as anything the Beatles did in their early days, and there's, of course, the brilliant "Strawberryfire," which almost manages to outdo Lennon's psychadelic sound experiments like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

However, with every brilliant song such as this, there is the horrendous filler. I rather like psychadelia, but the stopgap tracks between songs are pure directionless noodling. None of them start anywhere and most of them end nowhere, leaving you to scratch your head. And that says nothing about the concept of this CD either. Who in their right mind would actually RECORD a CD about what happens when you take a few too many bonghits and stare at the wallpaper for a while?

If The Apples in Stereo had managed to cut the terrible filler tracks, we'd have a lovely 7 song EP as opposed to the bloated 15 track one they released instead. As such, you're going to have to take the good with the bad on this one if you're going to buy it. Otherwise, check out some of the Apples' other CDs first.

This was my first Apples in Stereo, and I still like it the best, even though I now have them all.

It has all the wonderful trademarks: innocent, upbeat vocals; wonderful melodies; groundbreaking use of funny instruments (LOTS of toy piano); surprising lyrics; humor; variety.

Even better, it's a Concept Album. Plus it takes on some social issues (like people who believe what they read in the Enquirer; end-of-the-world junkies).

It's great: Neo-Psychedelia at its best.

Jeez, why did they release this stuff? I wished they had held on to the best songs here until they had some more good songs for a full-length album. Sure it's an EP, but even this is short for an EP. The songs are not as well produced or thought out as as Tone Soul Evolution. I almost feel ripped off! The Elephant 6 Beatlesesque songs are great when they are good songs with good production, but when they aren't they sure are tiring.

The songs are really good, but after you cut out all the random weird tracks, you're only left with seven songs totalling 21 minutes. That's it.