The Hollies

The Hollies – Butterfly (1967/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:07:45 minutes | 1,98 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino

This late 1967 album found the Hollies making some modest adjustments to the psychedelic era: occasionally trippy studio effects, a sitar on their most psychedelic track (“Maker”), songs that didn’t always deal with boy-girl relationships. In fact, however, the group’s focus remained where it usually was: modest but pleasing, similar-sounding catchy tunes with high harmonies and strumming guitars. It’s not remarkable or essential, but it’s certainly pleasant enough, and a bit better than their earlier 1967 LP, Evolution, with some of their better album-only cuts (“Postcard,” “Pegasus,” “Butterfly,” “Away Away Away”). With some track alterations, the record was issued in the U.S. as Dear Eloise/King Midas in Reverse; the U.K. edition, as collectors should note, has a few songs that were never released in the States (“Pegasus,” “Elevated Observations?,” “Try It”). – Richie Unterberger

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The Hollies – Evolution (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:53 minutes | 1,73 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Parlophone

For many Hollies enthusiasts, Evolution (1967) is considered the band’s most accessible blend of pop and psychedelia. The quintet were headed into musical territories beyond simply “moon-June-bloom” and boy-meets-girl lyrics coupled with the tightly constructed vocal harmonies that had become their calling card. Nowhere is this more evident than in the tripped-out cover art from Dutch multimedia artists Seemon Kooer, Marijke Kooer, Josje Leeger, and Barry Finch — known collectively as Fool. Although “Carrie-Anne” could be considered an extension of the trite, somewhat predictable Brit pop, there are clear indications of new horizons on cuts such as the modish “You Need Love,” the arguably passé distorted electric guitar on “Have You Ever Loved Somebody,” and the wailing fretwork on the driving freakbeat rocker “Then the Heartaches Begin.” Graham Nash (guitar/vocals), Allan Clarke (guitar/vocals), Tony Hicks (guitar/banjo/dulcimer/vocals), Bobby Elliott (drums), and new recruit Bernie Calvert (bass/vocals) — who replaced original member Eric Haydock in the spring of 1966 — were also taking different approaches in their writing and arranging, as heard on the trippy “Heading for a Fall.” On this tune, most prominent is the unusual six-eight time signature, coupled with Hicks’ inversion of the unmistakable banjo, which is similar to the sound he conjured up on the hit “Stop, Stop, Stop.” However, somewhat more atypical of the Nash-era band are the light and limber acoustic and uptempo “Stop Right There,” or the baroque “Ye Olde Toffee Shoppe.” – Lindsay Planer
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