ART OF LOVIN

• Track Listing

Producer Bob Shad worked with jazz, blues and doo-wop greats at Savoy and National in the 1940s and 50s, before launching Mainstream Records in 1964, initially continuing with jazz and blues but soon also including pop, rock, and film soundtracks on the roster. Boston-based psych-pop act the Art of Lovin' signed to the label in 1968 for their self-titled debut LP, the mixed-gender vocal combination of Gail Winnick and Sandy Winslow drawing comparisons with Jefferson Airplane, and the folk-influenced psych-pop of the Mamas and the Papas is another West Coast reference, but songs like 'I Have Seen Them All' and '(How Can We) Hang On To A Dream' held darker undercurrents. The group was tipped for major success which somehow never arrived and the schizophrenic episode that befell Winslow shortly after the album's release placed him in and out of psychiatric facilities thereafter, bringing the group to a premature end. Yet, there is plenty to discover on the Art of Lovin's self-titled LP, including the up-tempo 'Good Times,' which featured on the soundtrack of the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man.

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