Album Details

• Artist: Vashti Bunyan
• Album: Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind: Singles And Demos 1964-1967
• Label: DiChristina
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2007-12-24

The Grande Dame of New Weird America, Vashti Bunyan’s records in the late 60s and early 70s are more than a touchstone to freak-folkers—they are almost a template. Lo-fi and whimsical, with an impressionist eye for the cute and odd, Bunyan’s minimal pop is endearing and sharp in natural ways that many of her imitators try to fabricate. She has soul.This is a two disc set of demos and home tapes, with a few singles sprinkled in, surprisingly a couple for Columbia and Decca), twenty five songs, mostly clocking in under two minutes. Her wandering eye focuses on the concrete and the dreamy: love songs (“Girl’s Song In Winter,” “Don’t Believe,” “Autumn Leaves, “Leave Me,” “Find My Heart Again”) and mystical wanderings (“17 Pink Sugar Elephants,” “I’d Like to Walk Around In Your Mind,” the title track, “Wishwanderer”). Yet even her most out there songs ring matter of fact; she is not so much psychedelic as empathetic. The spare acoustic groove of these tunes, mostly with reed-thinProduction values, strike you as random thoughts from a creative soul who kept her eyes open to everything around her. And found it all amazing, sad, and kinda silly.

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