Heaven /earth

They Say...

Review by Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

1969's Heaven/Earth is the Free Design's third album. It carries on the tradition of excellence the group's first two albums had firmly established. It was also very much of a piece with the rest of their output -- no big changes. The record is overflowing with beauty and weirdness and lush arrangements with plenty of groovy touches that instantly date the record but also give it a hipness that is lacking in other MOR vocal group records. However, the true genius of the band is the fresh clear voices of the Dedrick siblings and the way Chris Dedrick arranged them. Tunes like the swinging "Now Is the Time," the witty and alarmingly cynical "2002 - A Hit Song," and the quietly inventive version of "If I Was a Carpenter" have sublime and unusual vocal harmonies that soar and swoop like psychedelic eagles, always surprising and often breathtaking. Some of the other tracks here worth mention are the sweet samba of "My Very Own Angel, Girls Alone," which features Sandy and Ellen harmonizing over a full big-band arrangement, and the moody and quite amazing "Dorian Benediction," which manages to sound like the Electric Prunes with Miles Davis sitting in and the hippest monks on earth chanting along. Heaven/Earth is worth a listen by anyone who likes vocal harmony and the sweet, innocent sounds of sunshine pop. [Light in the Attic's 2003 reissue of Heaven/Earth features new liner notes, loads of rare photos, and a rash of bonus tracks. In 1969, Ellen released a solo single with a cover of the Nat King Cole chestnut "Nature Boy" and the Chris Dedrick original "Settlement Boy." Both songs are very Free Design sounding, lacking only the vocal harmonies. The other six bonus cuts are taken from a Tony Mottola album, 1968's Warm, Wild & Wonderful. Mottola was a competent-at-best easy listening guitar player who also recorded for Project 3, the Enoch Light-sponsored label that the Free Design also recorded for. The album featured Mottola playing the hits of the day with the Free Design (billed on the cover as the Groovies) providing vocal background on a handful of tracks. Most of these songs are silly and campy. The group's "ohs" and "oohs" on the cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help" are quite hilarious for example, but they also help lift the material just far enough out of the cheese to make them worth hearing a couple of times. The version of "Kites Are Fun" is particularly interesting. It is probably not often that a group appeared on the easy listening cover of their own semihit. It must have felt weird, but you can't hear it in their sweet-as-ever vocals. Light in the Attic have done right by the Free Design, this is an attractive, well-thought-out reissue of a band that certainly deserves such reverential treatment.]