Disappeared Albums Undisappeared Dept.- Viva Saturn's Ships Of Heaven

Artwork by IOF© Department of Art Dept.

Do your own research, it'll take a minute, max. Ships Of Heaven is only mentioned on the internet a handful of times, in passing, as Viva Saturn's final album that Restless Records shelved, bafflingly, in 1998. There was, I think, a single released from it, Ships Of Heaven b/w Angel Sister, but that's not on Discogs, or anywhere. Nor is the artwork, which I only have at thumbnail size [left - Ed.].

A request in the comments to the Rain Parade piece [below - Ed.] prompted 4/5g© Geriatrix to rummage in his underwear drawer, and lo! Wrapped in an old pair of drop-seat BVDs he discovered a CD given to him by name redacted, containing eight songs from the unreleased album! You probably don't care, because you're distracted by an active shooter in the crack house across the hall, but I've been hunting this sucker for, like, decades. I mean, among other shit I had to do, but this was always on the list.

Eight songs was a little meager for an album-length album, but the CD was mysteriously missing the title track, which when added bulks the whole deal up to acceptable length, for back when albums were an acceptable length. Unfortunately, the tracks weren't named, so if you can help, help!

It's as swell as I hoped. Maybe as swell as Bright Side, which is super-swell. Psychemelodic, guitars out th' ass. And it's a beautiful link to the astonishing Last Rays Of A Dying Sun. Plus, at no cost to you, th' freeloadin' bum scratchin' yer balls, I researched the original cover illustration (from a 17c alchemical text which also supplied the art for the cover of the Third Ear Band's Alchemy album, but you knew that) and crayoned up a new cover [above - Ed.].

This post made possible thru the divine intercession of Geriatrix, who shall be carried aloft by oiled Nubians in procession around the IOF©, while slender doe-eyed dames strew petals in his path.

Paisley Overground Dept. - Rain Parade

Yup, they got the cover right, too

Did you ever buy an album on the strength of the band's name and title? Without hearing or seeing it? Back in the early 'eighties, I grabbed anything with even the most vestigial whiff of patchouli about it. Even then - forty years ago, fercrissake - I was ahead of my time, already living in the past. Where all the good stuff is. Where everything is. Just choose what you like. Don't be fooled by the marketing initiative of "now". So when I saw a couple of import albums listed in the NME small ads my Psychey Psense tingled. Rain Parade? The Three O'Clock? Emergency Third Rail Power Trip?? Baroque Hoedown?? I just knew these people were getting it right. Take my money! TAKE MY MONEY!!

I wasn't disappointed. Rain Parade seemed to have done the impossible, magicking up music that distilled the late 'sixties without actually sounding like any of the standard reference bands. That gorgeous, swimmy melancholy ... yes, yes, yesss ...

So here they are again, with their first album for since when. It sounds like there's no yawning chasm of time between it and Crashing Dream (and that was a good album - here on th' Iof©, good is always good enough). Maybe a year has passed in the Rain Parade substack. Max. Thirty-eight, you say? You're kidding. You must think I was born yesterday. You'll make up your own minds, but it's shaping up a close second to their first. And for why? On account which songs. This isn't an exercise in style; the songs have something to say and a seductive way of saying it, recognisably Rain Parade, the chordal hovering, the curling leads ... yesss.

Nobody has to buy an album unseen and unheard in these collapsing times. Nobody has to buy an album. Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is worth your fungible tokens. We're not going to be around for the next one, at this rate.

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