Lee Michaels

Lee Michaels – Tailface (1974/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 29:21 minutes | 1020 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

One of the most interesting second-division California psychedelic musicians, keyboardist Lee Michaels was one of the most soulful white vocalists of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Between 1968 and 1972, he released half a dozen accomplished albums on A&M that encompassed Baroque psychedelic pop and gritty white, sometimes gospel-ish R&B with equal facility. A capable songwriter, Michaels was blessed with an astonishing upper range, occasionally letting loose some thrilling funky wails. In 1971, he landed a surprise Top Ten single with “Do You Know What I Mean,” one of the best and funkiest AM hits of the early ’70s.

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Lee Michaels – Nice Day For Something (1973/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:18 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

Michaels keyboard-based sound does not change from his earlier albums although he does try using a synth here, and has replaced booming organ with piano. What is different is the writing. Michaels has given up 1960s heaviness for condensed, streamlined songs. Nothing wrong with this given that this was the early 1970s, tightening your keyboard sound is miles above sailing smackface into ELP goop. And there is an easy going, bluesy feeling which Michaels polishes to his advantage, sometimes even getting suddenly funky.

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