PAVLOV'S DOG discography

First-ever concert album from the St. Louis' finest canine pack is surprisingly good. But what, no thatsong?

New tricks from the old barker - a concept album for a sunset perspective.

We've been there before, on a record that starts with a song in a lady's name, but "Angeline" is no "Julia", and it signals a full circle for the ensemble which came to be 35 years before for a short, if impressive, run and delivered their last recorded sound in 1990. Here's an echo down the years and a boo from those who never liked the distinctive voice of David Surkamp who, together with original drummer Mike Safron, masterminded this comeback. Don't expect the result to be remindful of the days of yore: the nocturnal mood is different to the young and the midde-aged, so "Echo & Boo" dwells in twilight - it's a quiet observation rather than night on the town.

While the opener addresses the legend surrounding the band, and packs the familiar elements - those vocals, acoustic guitar, viloin wail - into the tremulous balladry to set the tone for the whole album, where isn't a single fast-paced track, the four parts of "The Death Of North American Industry Suite" puts the sepia tint in a different, antemic but gloomy, light. Still, for the most part the songs look into a psyche of a mature man, where even the playful country piano of "I Love You Still" and the exquisite Spanish guitar in the heartbreaking "We All Die Alone" sound sad, so even the story of titular characters flutters along in whispers, not screams, yet can give Cat Stevens' heroes a run for their fairy tale money. It feels like the end, with "I Don't Need Magic Anymore" for a prog rock closer, yet if it really would be the last ever entry in the DOG canon, it's a loud and glorious one.

****

Subtitled "The Pavlov's Dog Trinity Sessions", the fully fledged solo flight of the defunct ensemble's voice .

With no fruit born out of the original DOG's 2004 reunion but with interest in the band piched high, it was quite a time for David Surkamp to shake some action. Working under his own banner and touring under the old group's moniker, there's some undecidedness on this album's cover featuring both the singer's and the collective's names, yet this time's the music's gets close to the erstwhile magic. It's there, in the uplifting and infectious "Life In Imperfect Times" and in "Looking For My Shadow", that, in the rocks steady groove and acid ringing of Surkamp's guitars, enters Wonderland.

The slo-mo fall of "Losing My Piano" might suggest a bit adorned demo, but the song unfurls in a mesmerizing way, with a tran(ce)quility pierced with another searing solo. The serenity hits its zenith in the Lennon-meets-Sting "Wrong", strange yet life-affirming piece of soul-pouring. But the vocals are less cosmic now: David operates the pipes slightly different anyway, which widens his color palette and allows him shape "Hard Again" as a Roy Orbison honeyed ballad with the requisite "la-la's" for the backing, but the same lyrical approach spreads the dulcimer-sprinkled "Highlife Bunting" too thin on the ground. Even more ethereal and elusive feels "Ghost Barres", the seven-minute-plus throb of lysergic dream-chasing, but the closing country dance of "One Of These Days" is a perfect continuation of the DOG's legacy and an indication of the greater things to come.

***1/3

The revitalized St. Louis collective throw in their lot with the new era - and with mixed results.

Long before reunions became fashionable, singer David Surkamp and keyboard player Doug Rayburn, who seemed to have never lost their old-days telepathy, decided to give their by then already legendary band a new lease of life and came up with these 10 songs that barely resemble the DOG's '70s work. And it's not the vocals - still high, still distinctive - that hold the diference, it's the music, all '80s in its production: a lot of echo and a bit of synthetic aloofness mar even the best of tunes. That's what makes the romantic "Pantomime" rather banal, what with its over-the-top sax, and shoots down the otherwise majestic title track which anthemically eases in on the original guitarist Steve Scorfina's acoustic lace to end up in the choir-lifted gospel but never gets adventurous. Now it's as modern and American as it gets, so there's a stadium-sized "Breaking Ice" that Springsteen would have been proud to cover but it fails to touch the heart.

Still, "You & I" is one of the best not-slow ballads out there; it feels even more vital in a live version in the bonus section, alongside other new album's material, some in unplugged mode, unreleased tracks and classics such as "Subway Sue". Elsewhere, "All Night" is a swaggering slice of hard rock, and there's a catchy rock 'n' roll riff in "Not By My Side" yet its punky spikes are well-hidden under the plastic sheen. But while the predatory-paced "A Hardly Innocent Mind" buzzes like an African breeze with a swelling chorus that sounds not unlike EURHYTHMICS, and "Brown Eyes" comes poised elegantly between its organ base and soaring guitars, "As Lovers Do" and "Don't Rain On Me" are rather grey and purely of their period. If you're into it, the record is diffiicult not to love, but for those into the old DOG, it's a promise never fulfilled... and pleasant to the bone.

***

Much bootlegged "lost" third album sees the long-overdue official release. The old crime of shelving the record looks even more unforgivable.

The bite's softened and the bark's more mellifluous, the DOG's second outing doesn't fail to excite still.

A sybaritic gem radiating a light that etches an indelible image on the retina of one's mind and soul.

A piano passage serene but pregnant with expectation... And then, on a gentle acoustic guitar surge, this voice comes on which you either love or hate yet can't help but adore: an otherworldly weapon of such distinction that it's easy to suspect some studio trickery or helium involved there. The unbelievers are advised to check out the live bonus tracks on the remastered re-issue of PAVLOV'S DOG's impressive first album to see the naturalness of David Surkamp's pipes' output; the rest must hang in the almost Gothic beauty of "Julia", it's orchestra-awashed, the Hubert Laws flute-weaving opening cut. The high-strung vocals have only one downside - they might distract from the high-grade songwriting that makes "Pampered Menial" such a classic treasure.

It's quite simple to overlook the fact of "Natchez Trace" having a rock 'n' roll heart behind the progressive veneer. It was scintillating enough for ABC Records to sign the unknown band from St. Louis for the record-breaking $650,000 only to let them switch to Columbia a fortnight later for another $600,000, so two versions of the album hit the shelves at the same time. Time proved it was worth such princely sums, with "Late November" combining bucolic romanticism with the patina-tinctured urgency carried by Steve Scorfina's guitar solo and his sharp riff propelling the pure prog rock of "Song Dance" to which Sigfried Carver's violin introduces a folky interlude and David Hamilton's piano boogie brings it all home with a sweta-soaked resolution. And here's another unbelievable thing: the album's was produced by Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman, the BLUE OYSTER CULT pilots who managed to align the DOG with their only American rivals, KANSAS. While "Theme From Subway Sue" and the Beatlesque "Episode" are lyrically widescreen, "Fast Gun" is essentially a pop song, sleek but punctured with Rick Stockton's bass, given an additional depth by the organ and featuring Mike Safron's exquisite drum work on the infectious choruses.

There's also the quirky yet riveting Carver instrumental piece, "Preludin", that reveals all of its baroque power in a 10-minute concert version in the bonus section of the re-issue where the live take on "Subway Sue" follows the original closer, the theatrical, and even vaudevillian, "Of Once And Future Kings", and where the previously unreleased psychedelic "I Wish It Would Rain" makes its official debut. With "Rainbow", from 1969, by TOUCH, Surkamp's earlier band, tagged on as well, the irressistibility of "Pampered Menial" grows immensely. It really comes shining.

*****