Jim Sullivan: U.F.O. Vinyl LP Jim Sullivan

Light In The Attic has dug up another lost masterpiece with this ultra rare 1969 private press piece from Jim Sullivan entitled U.F.O.. Diggers, folk and psych heads, and anyone who can appreciate beautifully written music are going to want to hear this album, which also happens to feature the legendary Wrecking Crew collective of session musicians (who played in countless session with Phil Spector, The Beach Boys and more). It’s an incredible blend of Memphis swamp soul, LA sunshine pop and SoCal country rock, all filtered through 60’s acid shades. Here’s the story according to Light In The Attic: “In March 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost in the desert. Some think he fell foul of a local family with alleged mafia ties. Some think he was abducted by aliens. By coincidence – or perhaps not – Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O. It was a different beast to the one-man-and-his-guitar stuff Jim had been doing on stage; instead, it was a fully realised album of scope and imagination, a folk-rock record with its head in the stratosphere. Sullivan’s voice is deep and expressive like Fred Neil with a weathered and worldly Americana sound like Joe South, pop songs that aren’t happy – but with filled with despair. The album is punctuated with a string section (that recalls David Axelrod), other times a Wurlitzer piano provides the driving groove (as if Memphis great Jim Dickinson was running the show). U.F.O. is a slice of American pop music filtered from the murky depths of Los Angeles, by way of the deep south.” Recommended.

• black vinyl pressing
• gatefold sleeve
• music label: Light In The Attic 2010

reviewed by snackmaster 09/2010