The Left Banke: Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina

Well actually this is the album of the month of february 1967, but Sundazed finally reissued it and they deserve one of those onechord.net’s imaginary culture awards for doing so. It’s been extremely difficult to find The Left Banke material, because paying 50€ for an out of print CD compilation didn’t seem that inviting even though The Left Banke has been a huge favourite of mine for a long time. But now the wait is over and I’ve been finally able to buy physical copies of the first two The Left Banke albums.

Both Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina and The Left Banke Too are brilliant, but if I have to choose just one as the Album Of The Month, I have to go with the debut. The album contains incredible amount of perfect pop songs. Pretty Ballerina, She May Call You Up Tonight, Walk Away Renee, I’ve Got Something On My Mind, Let Go Of You Girl, I Haven’t Got The Nerve… ah these are all classics and every pop songwriter would be happy to have written even just one of them. It’s just perfect baroque pop with great harmonies and beautiful arrangements and The Left Banke should be regarded as one of the greatest pop groups of the sixties.

For example, check out the first two songs from their debut album below. They could have pretty much retired after writing those and they still would have left a mark in the history of pop music.

Pretty Ballerina

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rzeGqqethE]

She May You Call Up Tonight

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ag4EV9iyS0]