Description

Rare 1968 US pressing with red hype sticker saying Featuring Pictures Of Matchstick Men on front

Status Quos debut album featured none of the band’s better-known boogie rock of the mid’70s. Picturesque Matchstickable Message is a psychedelic effort that tries to imitate the sound bands like the Bee Gees or the Beatles were doing at the moment. With this record, Status Quo surprisingly had its first (and last) hit in America, the single Pictures Of Matchstick Men, which peaked at number 12 (it reached number seven on the British charts). Other highlights from the album are the second single, Ice In The Sun, and the Bee Gees cover Spicks And Specks. Even if this is not the most representative album from Status Quo, it is a good psychedelic pop exercise that sometimes includes very imaginative guitar phrases and some brilliantly unusual sounds

Track list:
1. Black Veils Of Melancholy
2. When My Mind Is Not Live
3. Ice In The Sun
4. Elizabeth Dreams
5. Gentleman Joes Sidewalk Cafe
6. Paradise Flat
7. Technicolor Dreams
8. Spicks And Specks
9. Sunny Cellophane Sky
10. Pictures Of Matchstick Men