Family - Music In A Doll's House

When Family's debut hit the shelves in 1968, it must have sounded like positively nothing else--retrospectively, it's hard to really tie them to any other specific movements or bands, with their layered sound employing familiar rock instrumentation as well as saxophone, brass horns, harmonica, strings and mellotron.  The closest I can come is perhaps Traffic, but Traffic's sound is so married with pop, soul and blues that it can't hold a candle to Family in terms of sheer weirdness.

Of course, a good deal of the band's strangeness is owed to lead singer Roger Chapman's powerfully thick, tremulous vocals.  As far as I know, he's got no stylistic equal in the history of rock music, and his brio certainly adds a unifying, distinctive character to what is an extremely eclectic collection of songs.  The demonic wailing that kicks off "The Chase" should be evidence enough that you're in for a strange trip, and as the track gallops through baroque textures and detuned horns, you know you're not coming back for a good 40 minutes.  From the opener out, it's an unpredictable ride through shimmering ballads ("Mellowing Gray," "The Breeze"), trippy pop ("Never Like This," "Winter," "3 X Time"), blues broken up by progressive interludes ("Old Songs For New Songs," "Hey Mr. Policeman"), and dark rock of a definite other quality ("Me My Friend," "Voyage," "Peace of Mind," "See Through Windows"), to which I find myself gravitating the most--the latter combines an addictive psychedelic guitar riff with perfect timing lyrically--"See through...windows...Look...at things."

For what's ostensibly a rock album, it takes quite a few listens to fully apprehend all that transpires within--the songs are short, mostly under three minutes, and there are even shorter interludes in between that play with a handful of the songs' melodies and briefly present them in different settings.  With all of the eclecticism and wealth of ideas presented here, I'm pretty much obligated to artistically appreciate this album, which I do--I especially admire the band's ability to pack in the ideas and different textures within the space of short songs, often stating ideas without overly repeating them (nothing's worse than heavy-handed repetition).  Still, a couple things hold this album back from the next level for me.  First, in spite of the diversity in songwriting and instrumentation, I often find myself hoping for something harder--Chapman's voice is probably the hardest thing on the album, and a lot of the songs feel weirdly lush without carrying as much force as they feel like they should.  Additionally, there's something unquantifiable about some of the melodies and ideas that indicates they don't always have the natural flair for distinction and memorability that sets good bands apart from great ones.  This is probably the most artistically troubling thing about this album for me personally--that you can put the effort in to really cram an album with surprises every few seconds and it still isn't "great."  Who knows--perhaps I just haven't listened enough times to assimilate all the data.  After all, that is one of the best things about music that's dense with ideas. 

Ultimately, Music In A Doll's House sits in that strange gap between late-60's psychedelia and 70's progressive rock.  Strangely, I like it a lot more than most proto-progressive albums I've heard, as there is some genuinely feverish experimentation happening from a songwriting perspective, and despite the eclecticism the band has a certain focus.  Unfortunately, the further Family went, the less focused they became--even their second album featured the drastic change of handing Chapman (by far their most distinctive element) only half of the lead vocals.  Many a good band has been mired in mediocrity thanks to an overemphasis on democracy--sometimes, there's something to be said for numerous players supporting the vision of one or two in the name of better results.

Get it here on CD.