The troubadour's odds and sods album

Thanks for the votes from last time, people....This image is a bit smaller than the last one, partly for economical reasons. But it's not at all a good cover, and like Odessey and Oracle, it is not a good representation of what you'll find inside.

Mellow Yellow. Four stars.

Donovan Leitch really is in some ways the epitome of the sixties hippie ideal. By combining light folk leanings with trippy pop tunes and heavy brushes of psychedelia he manages to completely sum up one whole aspect of the counterculture of the time. He's also light, whimsical, twee. Naturally a bit dated.

Yet these are not bad things. They add to the music's charm, certainly. And Donovan has a lovely Scottish lilt to his voice and is a capable songwriter.

Prior to listening the only song I was familiar with on this 1967 album was the title track, which as it turns out was not at all representative of sound or quality. Mellow Yellow sports a punchy brass band and a lyric that is complete nonsense. There's a school of thought that believe Paul McCartney is doing backup vocals but (unless he's the one whooping it up in the background) I think that's a hoax. I don't really like this song, to be frank.

But that's no problem, because with Writer in the Sun quality goes way up. A gentle, swaying song, featuring a pastoral flute or two. It was written several years earlier when Donovan had believed his career to be over. The resignation and sorrow come across beautifully and the lyrics are far beyond the previous offering.

Sand and Foam has a dark, elegant guitar and the lyrics are so highly poetic as to be nearly incomprehensible the first time. This gives the whole thing a mysterious vibe and it's another highlight.

The Observation is very short, more memorable for the jazzy backup band than either melody or song. But it still gives proof of what an odd lyricist Donovan really is, as he uses the simplist rhymes imaginable (hustling and bustling, mellow yellow, trip out skip out flip out, etc) and can turn around and deliver something really accomplished and poetic - sometimes in the same song.

Bleak City Woman is another light moment. Innocuous and not at all memorable, but there you have it.

House of Jansch is the opposite. Instantly memorable with a very interesting lyric. Why? Because while nothing about it indicates it's a happy song, there's nothing especially sad about it either. Two minute pop songs are usually more overt than that. The title has nothing to do with the song contents, and seems to be meant as a tribute to one Bert Jansch, another Scot, one who founded the band Pentangle.

The real tour de force comes with Young Girl Blues. The voice is way too loud in the mix, and the fadeout is a bit too quick, but other than that! It gets your attention right away, more so with the pauses after every dour verse. "Blues" in a title is usually misleading, but this track is actually quite harrowing and dismal.

With Museum it returns to typical Donovan. A hip, swinging number to enjoy.

Hampstead Incident. Now listen to that guitar. Doesn't that sound a lot like the acoustic passage opening Babe I'm Gonna Leave You? Otherwise it's another dark track, this time featuring strings and an evocative lyric. I really like Donovan's darker work.

But it ends with Sunny South Kensington, a name-dropping, fast paced song. Donovan ditches his Scottish croon for a rather harsher voice, the sort used on his famous Sunshine Superman song. Good music anyway.

Oh, keep in mind, not one of these songs rocks, not even slightly. That really wasn't his forte. Some of them bounce a bit, is all.

Extra facts: Mellow Yellow is in fact not a proper recording at all, at least not from one complete session. It combines leftovers from the Sunshine Superman album, a single or two, and other odds and ends. This may explain the continuously shifting lineup of incidental instruments, or that may just be part of Donovan's style.

However, it does explain the lack of information about the session players. I've heard that it's Danny Thompson on double bass, and that John Paul Jones did arrangements. Based on the McCartney rumour, I'll take such info with a grain of salt.

Otherwise, all I have to say is that this is a nice little record. Fun and moody by degrees, and a good candidate for my list of afternoon tea comfort CDs.