The sole album of an eponymous and short-lived L.A. sunshine pop quartet, The Collage began with a handful of original songs by outsiders Ron Joelson and Jerry Careaga that were quirky and cool enough to win the temporary attentions of Smash Records, a Mercury subsidiary. Enter singers Donna Byrd and Jodie Cline, along with Spector disciple and Wrecking Crew founder Steve Douglas, who himself fetched along a glittering karass of session wizards plus several ditties by plutonium-weight popmeisters. The band originals, especially “Rainy Blue Memory Day” and “Any Day’s a Sunny Afternoon” give a true idea where the act’s minor virtues lay. Roger Nichols’ “Can I Go” is embarrassingly far from his best work, and “She’s Just Laughin’ at Me” by the Addrisi Brothers ain’t a rag-ass patch on The Association’s “Forever My Love.” A-level production and limp borrowed tunes crushed the life out of the original LP, which dropped early in 1968 at the height of the sunshine pop trend and promptly bombed. Appearances on TV dreck like The Joey Bishop Show and Playboy After Dark slotted them for a long death on the Vegas Strip, but the band broke up instead. The bonus tracks contain several worthy originals, especially the light orchestra psychedelia of “Leave Behind a Dream.” Their take on Harry Nilsson’s “Story of Rock and Roll” is the one time the band really cooks with rented material and cuts The Turtles’ minor-hit version released later that year. The added material makes this reissue worth it for Sixties pop cultists, but don’t expect the second coming of the Free Design.

-Ron Garmon

David Bowie -- Hunky Dory

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--IqqusnNQ

Harry Nilsson -- Nilsson Schmilsson

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3cUcHi97zY

JJ Cale -- Naturally

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kof0SLjSVac

Al Green -- Gets Next to You

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICKToz7BLLA

Roy Harper -- Stormcock

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmA3ZaVS54

Rolling Stones -- Sticky Fingers

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_x6lHCBKc4

Carole King -- Tapestry

www.youtube.com/watch?v=urt2cy7AqFs

Paul McCartney -- Ram

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZT5XeeOOWo

Carpenters -- Carpenters

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxHJZDIJu3M

Led Zeppelin -- Led Zeppelin IV

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q7Vr3yQYWQ

Download: Devon Williams “Sufferer”

(from the “Sufferer” 7″ out Sept. 22 on Slumberland)

An extension of last year’s Carefree LP, the “Sufferer” EP contains two songs—the bouncy title track and a slow-builder B-side called “Who Cares About Forever?” Williams plays a brand of pop music that is hard to categorize—his melodies are the crux of the songs, but the subtle augmented instrumentation and the soaring guitars are what sets him apart from contemporaries. The pop comparisons to Nilsson and Clifford Ward can definitely be heard in Williams’ songwriting and it excites me that Los Angeles has someone that is playing a modern twist on these kinds of tunes on a regular basis. On “Sufferer,” Williams turns up the intensity on his tremolo and plays along to a chugging drum pattern. This is my preference of the two and would have fit right in on the Carefree full length—one of my favorite LPs of 2008. The breakdown/chorus that Williams often employs is perfect to showcase the vocals and melody on this gem. “Who Cares About Forever?” contains another carefully plotted melody with sparse instrumental flourishes. The song has a timeless, familiar feel—like it could have been released in any of the last three or four decades. And actually, that’s a good way to sum up Devon himself.

—James Cartwright