5th Dimension - Up, Up, and Away

Surprise! I didn't write about an album last night, so we'll just kick off the weekend with the debut album by 5th Dimension, Up, Up, and Away.

I've said it before and i'll say it any chance i get: 5th Dimension are awesome. It's easy to just dismiss them as sunshine pop and move on, but this band is a seriously complex amalgam of everything happening around them. That's in large part due to Johnny Rivers, who handed them the title track by an unknown (but soon to be big) songwriter, Jimmy Webb. In my opinion, Rivers stands right along with Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, Mutt Lange, and John Fogerty in the producer's pantheon.

Like The Wanderer by Donna Summer, this is obviously peppy and cheerful, good time background music, but it's not fluff. The songs are great, the musicianship is excellent, and the  compositions/arrangements are like a masterclass in writing pop music for rock orchestra: dueling choirs, pop/rock/funk lines hiding inside croony ballads, tempo/meter shifts, complex harmonies under earworm worthy melodies. Yes it's pop, but with a special kind of inclusiveness, an everything can belong kind of attitude that only 5th Dimension can convincingly create. As good a start to the weekend as anyone could want. Cheers.

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