The Walker Brothers are taking it easy

Title: Take It Easy

Label: Music on Vinyl

“So we lost the American War of Independence. So what! We’ve got the Walker Brothers and that’s more than equalled the score.” Only radio DJ, Tony Blackburn could have said that. And he did.

I must admit I got a shock when I first heard that this mop top trio of male singers (they didn’t play on their own records…shades of The Monkees) were not actually brothers…or even really called Walker. In fact Scott Engel, John Maus and Gary Leeds hit the heights in the UK before they did any business in the USA (shades of Hendrix). But who could ignore a trio who produced singles like Make It Easy on Yourself in 1965 and The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore in 1966? If you were a fan in the UK, then you would also have been grooving and moving (often emotionally) to the strains of My Ship Is Coming In, (Baby) You Don’t Have to Tell Me and Another Tear Falls (shades of Sinatra…and the group’s real influence).

What we have here is the group’s debut release, from 1965, easily their best LP in their short career as a trio. Fans will know that this debut UK version of the album is similar but different to the debut US version as it is missing their first single, Pretty Girls Everywhere/Doin’ the Jerk and My Ship Is Coming In but the adds three tracks that never made the US release. Two of those tracks, The Girl I Lost in the Rain and First Love Never Dies, are worthy additions to any album.

This edition features four bonus cuts including that missing track, My Ship Is Coming In, Love Her, But I Do and The Seventh Dawn.

In technical terms, the album is compressed as many pop pressings where during the 60s, the effects are most apparent during the string sequences from the backing orchestra and the guitar accompaniment but there is a ‘time and a place’ effect that adds a sepia-like tone that just drips in nostalgia.