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The music group The Gowsills are arguably one of the most popular to emerge out of Rhode Island and especially if the Billboard pop music charts are a deciding factor. Smash hits like "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things," "Indian Lake," "We Can Fly," and of course, "Hair," put the then Newport-based group on the map in the 1960's. The group hung it up as a recording act in the early 1970s with the
members going their own respective ways. While they did reunite for a new recording in the early 1990s, but its release later in the decade was very limited. That is, until now. Recent years have offered a recharged version of The Cowsills beginning with the 2022 album Rhythm of the World. In continuing that Cowsills resurgence, Omnivore Recordings take us back to the circa-1990s Cowsills with the reissue of
the band's album Global recorded in 1992, but not released until 1998 and only in limited quantities. Hearing it for the
first time over a quarter century later, it has me scratching the head as to
why it never clicked as it is a pop rock tour de force of a record. It’s in the Ear
Bliss spotlight this week along with the new album from folk rock legend Jain Matthews . . .
The Cowsills
Global
Omnivore Recordings
If things twisted just a
little in their favor back in
1992, the reunited band
The Cowsills would have
signed a major record label deal and just perhaps,
their album Global might
have struck gold or more.
The pop rock confection
of the album's songs certainly had all the makings
of being both ear-friendly
and radio-ready from a
band which even after not
working together for over
a decade, sounded as if it
was clicking on all cylinders. Who knows? The
deal they almost had fell
through and the album
went on to languish on
the shelf, so to speak, until 1998 when it was basically self-released and in
rather small quantities, at
that. Continuing its focus
on The Cowsills which
continued in 2022 with
the new album from the
band called Rhythm of the
World, Omnivore Recordings offers up the reissue
of Global in both vinyl
and CD formats with the
latter version containing
three bonus tracks. Going
back to '22's Rhythm of
the World, it was the first
recording by the band in
30 years since recording the tracks that would
comprise Global which
was finished in 1992, but
due to a failed record deal
never saw the light of day
until the band formed its
own label to release it six
years later. Global catch-
es the ear straight out of
the gates with the song
"What About Love?" featuring Susan Cowsill on
lead vocals and its highly
appealing pop-rock formula. That winning formula which features all
four members taking their
turn in the vocal spotlight
continues through the en-
suing tracks including
standouts such as "What I
Believe" and "I Be Low."
Oh, what might have
been. Visit www.om-
nivorerecordings.com/
the-cowsills/
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