This album by The Things has been sitting in the vaults for 40 years. In the late ’80s when Steve Crabtree's band had run out of opportunities to work in Los Angeles in an increasingly asphyxiated scene and now quickly interested in other sounds and styles, The Things still had a lot to say. 
The songs that make up this album were later remixed and mastered by Crabtree but have never been released in any form on the record market. 
The days of the “Outside My Window” sessions are not far away, in fact much of the material that makes up this collection was written and recorded shortly after the release of their second album, in 1986. 
In recent years, while we were working on reissues of the two Things LPs I asked Steve if there was any unreleased material and to my great surprise he sent me not just a few tracks but an entire LP. One listen was enough for me to realize that this album had to see the light of day. 
I'm very happy to have been involved “on the front lines” in the work of recovering the entire Things catalogue and to have been able to play live with Steve in Italy over the last two years. Steve is a free and democratic spirit, a romantic with clear ideas about what the United States has become, respectful and generous both as a human being and as a musician. 
Talking about music or playing with him means for those who have always loved the Folk Psych sounds of the Sixties, discovering a brother you didn't know you had. 
I don't know what the future holds, but in the meantime we intend to enjoy the release of this “lost album” finally rediscovered. 
We're sure fans of the Paisley Underground scene and beyond will enjoy it. 
The album opens with “Lie to You”, led by a very Neil Young-esque acid guitar, one of Steve's undisguised passions, but probably little expressed on the first two Things albums. 
This is followed by “The Next Time”, a gorgeous Popsike song with references to the Zombies, in a fusion of English Pop and West Coast. 
“No replacement”: fast, pop, it takes up the sonic path of the Paisley Underground undertaken in the first album ‘Coloured Heaven’. Vocal harmonies not far from the soundscapes of the Associations, you play at resorting between a lightning harmonica and the electricity of the guitars and the piano. 
“Second Best” takes us into territory dear to Crabtree, the Beatles of Revolver, and immerses us in a crossover between Freakbeat echoes and US-made 60s Pop. 
“In The Morning” presents itself as a gentle, dreamy ballad, enriched with psychedelic colors that draws the typical boundaries of Crabtree's song, suspended between moodiness and an acidic Folk Rock that gradually builds, bringing the song to completion. The recordings of 'Outside My window' are not far away, you can hear, the feel is that. 
“Take The Night” is quintessential Beatlesian, filtered through the eyes of an '80s Folk Rock-Pop band. 
“You can Listen” insists on psychedelic 'Revolvers', especially the backing vocals and Roy McDonald’s drumming. 
And here's what I think is the album's real hit: “A Minor Song”, perfect in its fusion of pop tension, vocal harmonies and catchy yet melancholic overtones, just enough. The guitars weave arpeggios that hark back as much to obscure mid-Sixties bands like Painted Faces as to the best melodic Powerpop of the 70s. 
In “What's It like To Fly” you can once again feel the influence of the artist of the heart, Neil Young: the distorted Gibson harks back to the 70s sound while the vocal harmonies recall the more choral works of Buffalo Springfield. Crabtree's writing manages to enrich the song even more, elevating it towards the best Harmony-Pop of the golden era ’65-’75. 
“For No Real Reason” appears to be coming straight out of the ‘Outside My Window’ sessions. An echo-laden introductory flute à la “Between The Buttons”-era introduces one of the album's rarest and most dramatic atmospheres; the pathos and effects are as dreamlike as they are palpable. A short track, which perhaps could have given more as a single or on an extended play. 
The introductory piano of “The Void” still owes something to the ‘Stones of a poetic ’67 Jagger, but the interplay between the guitars and the rhythmic progression is more progressive. The song serves as a link to the next track: ”I Don't Remember (Loving You)”, an unexpected but engaging country song as per tradition on many albums by Sixties (including Garage) bands, in all respects the most carefree moment of the album , full of guitar licks that underline the technical prowess of both Things guitarists: Steve Crabtree and Larry Klein. 
After playing around a bit’, the music gets back to ”serious”, with the album's brilliant and final track, “Crystal Blue”, a mid-tempo that perfectly balances the two strongest influences of the Things: the Folk-Psych of the Sixties/the Beatles echoes and the more rock component ’70s a-la Crazy Horse. 
The final reverse solo is splendid, as if to close the circle that began in 1984 with “Coloured Heaven”, the debut album by Things. 
Steve Crabtree, immediately after the "official" third album of Things, released on Epitaph, would disband the band, continuing to record alone, and play live with many lineups to move further, from Los Angeles to Seattle. 
As a solo artist, his style will continue the spirit and sonic taste linked to the Things years, enriching it in a more mature and singer-songwriter formula. 
If you're in the Seattle area, don't miss the chance to go and hear him live in his personal Coloured Heaven, full of dreamy guitars and harmonies, the very thing that best represented the Paisley Underground movement. 

Massimo del Pozzo 
Roma 2 Marzo 2026