Genre: psych
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Dialogue
Company: Cold Studio
Catalog: --
Year: 1974
Country/State: U
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: second pressing; includes lyric insert
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4514
Price: $250.00
Cost: $66.00
Here's another one of those obscurities that's rather difficult to track down; let alone adequately describe. Interestingly we've seen various reviews that label the LP everything from "psychedelic masterpiece" to comparing it to The Beatles and Badfinger. Want the truth? Read on.
Kurt Shore and Jim Stanton were apparently from the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. As Dialogue the pair recorded their 1972 debut "Dialogue" in Birmingham, Alabama's New London Studios. Co-produced by Rick Matos and the duo, the album featured a surprisingly commercial and polished set of pop ballads. Written by Shore, (Stanton arranging), tracks such as "Think Father Think", "Aslon the Lion" and "It Scares Me So" are largely keyboard-propelled ballads. Full of pretty melodies and gorgeous harmony work (the one notable exception being the cloying "Sandbox"), the overall effect is more "sunshine pop" than psych. That does nothing to diminish the album's appeal to our ears. (Love the "we're not businessmen ... send money so we can record more music" plea found on the insert.)
There are apparently at least three versions of the LP; the 1972 original that doesn't mentioned Cold Studio, and a pair of 1974 pressings, one with an address on the back, the other without.
"Dialogue" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Think Father Think (Kurt Shore) - 2:56
2.) Aslon the Lion (Kurt Shore) - 2:44
3.) I'm Not Coming Home (Kurt Shore) - 3:57
4.) Tell Me Mother (Kurt Shore) - 2:11
5.) Back In the Cold (Kurt Shore) - 3:18
(side 2)
1.) It Scares Me So (Kurt Shore) - 2:45
2.) You've Got Your Nerve (Kurt Shore) - 2:40
3.) Jim and His Friend (Kurt Shore) - 2:00
4.) I Came So Near (Kurt Shore) - 3;10
5.) Sandbox (Kurt Shore) - 2:00
6.) On Every Shore (Kurt Shore) - 2:58
There's supposedly a non-LP 45, but we've never seen details on it.