Bill Lloyd - Feeling the Elephant - 1987

Bill Lloyd's first solo album was actually released in 1987, predating the Nashville native's association with Radney Foster in the mainstream country act Foster and Lloyd. However, at that time, it appeared on the tiny Boston indie Throbbing Lobster, just as that label was breathing its last. Thoughtfully, Atlanta's DB Records picked up Feeling the Elephant after Foster and Lloyd's commercial breakthrough and reissued it in a new cover with slightly improved sound. Good thing, too, because Feeling the Elephant beats the pants off of Foster and Lloyd's fine but annoyingly slick albums. Recorded as (mostly) one-man band demos between 1983 and 1986, the ten songs on Feeling the Elephant range from Big Star wistful jangle ("This Very Second") to Marshall Crenshaw roots pop ("Lisa Anne"), with side trips into the funky rock of "I Wanna Sit and Watch the Credits Roll" and the ghostly psychedelia of "Everything's Closing Down." It's hard to believe that this wasn't originally recorded as an album, because there's a flow and organic unity to these well-sequenced songs that makes Feeling the Elephant a more satisfying listen than most power pop albums. The slightly new wavish, Let's Active-like title track and the ultra-catchy jangle popper "Nothing Comes Close" are particular highlights, but this is a power pop joy from start to finish. -AMG