The Association [Import]

Association | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 24, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Warne
• ASIN: B00000ILLU
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,766 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Look at Me, Look at You

2. Yes, I Will

3. Love Affair

4. The Nest

5. What Were the Words

6. Are You Ready?

7. Dubuque Blues

8. Under Branches

9. I Am up for Europe

10. Broccoli

11. Goodbye Forever

12. Boy on the Mountain

13. Under Branches [*]

14. Yes, I Will [*]

15. Dubuque Blues [*]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Association Appreciation!, February 24, 2001

By 

Alan Caylow (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Association (Audio CD)

The Association are one of the most underacknowledged brilliant bands from the late 60's/early 70's. Oh sure, these guys had several big hit singles through 1968 ("Windy" being the best-known of the lot), but come 1969, the public's interest in The Association was waning, which is a total shame if you ask me. After all, these guys from Los Angeles have created some of the most beautiful pop/rock that has ever been done. (There's also a marvelous art-rock feel to some of their material---"Requiem For The Masses" is a perfect example.) Their tight musical chops & intelligent songwriting alone is worth the price of admission, but then, there's also their heavenly choir voices....aaaah. Pure vocal magic. The Association may be best known for their early ballads, but these Japanese re-issues of their catalog, as pricey as they are, prove that there is SO much more to this band than just their "Greatest Hits" collection.I can't believe the whole world totally missed the boat on the group's fabulous self-titled album from 1969. "The Association" marked the beginning of the downward arc for the band commercially: there were no hit singles, and record sales weren't too hot, either. But *creatively*, the band had never been better. I love all of their earlier albums, but "The Association" is the group's finest work. By this time, the band had branched out into creating songs that were a bit more sophisticated and arty. In fact, the group sound on this album like a cross between The Moody Blues & The Alan Parsons Project! Even the album cover, with it's striking "Stonehenge in outer space" painting, signaled that The Association were doing something very different indeed with this record. And it's magnificent.Gorgeous songs abound everywhere: "Love Affair," "The Nest," "Under Branches," and the brilliant album-closer, "Boy On The Mountain," which almost brings me to tears whenever I hear it. "Yes I Will" & "Are You Ready" are really catchy songs that *should* have been big hits. And then there's "Broccoli"---it is what it is, folks. If this wonderfully silly song doesn't put a smile to your face, then you must not have a sense of humor!The door may have been closing on The Association by the time 1969 rolled around, but the band were still at the top of their game musically. "The Association" is a fabulous album by this equally fabulous band, and is a true buried musical treasure. It's worth every penny of the import price, and is highly recommended. There IS more to The Association than just "Windy."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Association" just might surprise you!, October 10, 2003

By 

Matt Williamson (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Association (Audio CD)

The Association's self-titled 1969 album represents the group at a curious turning point in their career where they were able to progress in a musical direction beyond the familiar pop-hits such as "Cherish" and "Never My Love" but still not be taken seriously by the counterculture. If their "AM radio" reputation preceded them among the "too hip for the square" crowd, the absence of a bonafide hit single from this album ensured that their pop following would have a hard time finding them in a sea of new acts and trends in the rock arena. Despite the new musical biases working against the Association, this album charted at a respectable #32 on Billboard's Album chart but today is relatively unknown, having been released in the year following their million-selling Greatest Hits package.

Comprised of nearly all original material and co-produced by the group and John Boylan, the Association seemed eager to wipe clean the slick, canned sound of the previous two albums produced by Bones Howe. This resulted in what is considered by many as their best album vocally, with painstaking care being given to vocal arrangements and harmonies, always an Association trademark. Vocals on "Love Affair" and "Under Branches" are soaring and clean with the band singing at its most confidant. Jim Yester's smooth lead vocals and Jules Alexander lyrics are backed by sparse instrumentation giving the spotlight to the layers of backing vocals. Unfortunately, choosing "Under Branches" for single release in May, proved to be perhaps an over-confidant move as its complex time changes and over-mellowness caused the song to reach a dismal #117 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart.

The group is clearly having fun with Terry Kirkman's inspiring "Look At Me, Look At You" and Russ Giguere's comical "Broccoli." The CSN-like "Dubuque Blues" and "What Were The Words" may be the best evidence that the Association could be taken as a serious late-sixties band but they falter with hard-rock ("I Am Up For Europe") and topical themes ("Boy On The Mountain") as these excursions would have been best replaced in favor of outside material.

"Yes I Will" was the next single released but it surprisingly bombed (#120 Billboard Bubbling Under chart) despite being a catchy tune with everything you could ask for in a two minute and thirty second pop song. The excellent Jules Alexander composition "Dubuque Blues" was the final single released in support of the album, but it offered very little support, even missing Billboard's Bubbling Under chart.

Although "The Association" has been sadly overshadowed by the group's earlier hits, many diehard fans rate this as one of their best albums. Years later many of the songs still sound fresh and vibrant and is considered an essential part of their catalog.

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this album. Love it. Love it love it., October 17, 2001

By 

David Goodwin (Westchester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Association (Audio CD)

Ahh, The Association. Apparently known as "Stonehenge" to people who bought it when it actually came out. If you go by Association Greatest Hits collections... this album doesn't exist; NONE of its tracks are ever comped, it seems. Which is, in my humble opinion, completely and utterly bizarre, because *this*, my friends, is the best piece of wax put out....

Lemme explain myself. I've heard this album called both "Easy-listening" and "Country-rock." Neither are very accurate; Sweetheart of the Rodeo this ain't, for example. Yet it does have a bit of a "country" sound to it, as the banjo that opens the album and "Look At Me, Look at You" conveys. But this album has a sound all its own, or more precisely, all the Association's. I don't know if they played all/most of the instruments on this record, and frankly, I don't care. The songcraft is just...

...well, let me give an example. Love Affair. What an EXCELLENT tune! The Nest! Dubuque Blues! Under Branches! Goodbye Forever! Heck, even the obligatory joke song (Broccoli) is excellently done. The vocal arrangements are impeccable--these guys can SING-...

OK, I'm gushing by this point. To summarize: the Association are, of course, quite a bit better than they tend to be given credit for, but that always comes off sounding like a euphemism for something. But while even their best previous albums had their week spots (*coughNofairatall*cough*), this just beats the rest into tar insofar as great Association *albums* are concerned. Go sample the album and see; startlingly good doesn't even begin to cover it.