THE GREEN PAJAMAS – TO THE END OF THE SEA
As fate would have it, I’m sat here on Jeff Kelly’s birthday, celebrating with a cold, sudsy concoction and the latest from his band of 
merry minstrels. The cheat sheet from Green Monkey Records, off-and-on home to Kelly & Co. throughout their 30+ years tabulates this as their 32nd album. You’ll be forgiven (just barely) if you missed a dozen or so, as I count nearly 20 different labels, including Kelly’s own St Brigid imprint that have issued their music. Green Pajamas albums are always an adventure, and despite hints from the title of their previous release from four years ago (Death By Misadventure), the band have not retired to cuddly cotton slippers and fuzzy nighties. The personnel is the rub, with occasional in-name-only albums predominantly showcasing the work of guitarist/songwriter Jeff Kelly. This one’s a little harder to get a handle on, as there appear to be more non-Pajamas than actual PJs on this album, with keyboardist Eric Lichter apparently taking a rest and bassist Joe Ross consigned to a tip of his beret in the “band” photo (unless someone made a big “Oops!” and omitted him from the credits).
The content suggests a loose concept album about a lighthouse keeper and a woman he finds on the beach after a violent storm. Sounds like perfect fodder for Kelly’s fertile mind to whip up some type of Gothic sci-fi romance, the full effect of which is scattered across 18 tracks, presented in two Abbey Road-esque medleys. ‘Will The Ships Go Down’ is as ominous an opening track as its title implies, with eerie, fuzzy guitar lines wah-wahing around gurgling synths and Kelly’s heavily-treated vocals (perhaps overly so) setting the tables for the “mystery” to follow. I’d say there’s a touch of the playfully creative Soft-Hearted Scientists at work here, the numerous sound effects and backwards guitars adding intriguing expectations.
Laura Weller adds the two-part ‘Sea of Secrets’, a dreamscape of harmonies and proggy embellishments that would work equally well on a Renaissance album – there’s a faint hint of Annie Haslam’s vocals as well, always a strongpoint of Weller’s Pajamas tracks. And the seductive, sinewy ‘Why Did I Think I Could’ may be her finest vocal ever! Elsewhere, ‘All of the Starry Sky’ is a dreamy thousand yard stare into the dark, infinite universe, while ‘Who Is The Girl’ sounds like Kelly found a Macca outtake lying in the corner of Abbey Road studio, a little dittie from long, long ago, and ‘When Juliet Smiles’ could’ve been one of his own outtakes from the Pajamas’ original comeback albums on Camera Obscura (i.e., Strung Behind The Sun, All Clues Lead To Meagan’s Bed).
A couple of spooky, NASA-supplied sound excursions bring outer space closer to home, supplementing the band’s earthbound instrumentation, itself buoyed by guest violin, cello, and trumpet contributions. It expands the album’s musical pallet beyond bar band blues or heavy-lidded psychedelia (cf., ‘Ten Million Light Years Away’, ‘Anyone But Me’), again nodding respectfully back to the “Tony Dale era” that reintroduced the band to a wider audience, beginning at Terrascope’s very own series of Terrastock festivals going on 20 years ago now!
If there’re are any knocks against the album, some listeners might have wished for a little more substance to a few of the songs, with nearly half clocking in at or under two minutes (and, perhaps the instrumental ‘(Dusk)’ – a Pajamas first! – could’ve been incorporated into another track to flesh out the feeling that another shoe is about to drop at any moment). But these are minor quibbles for what is essentially another strong and varied album of flamenco(!), prog, psych, and effervescent pop. And word has it that the band are already at work on their next album, due early next year! (Jeff Penczak – Terrascope)