All In One – All In One, 1969

Very much a quiet “wow” record. Warm, dusty, honeyed Chicago private press folk pop. The only release from the group, which included Katherine Parsons, Kathryn Davis, W. Wilson, T. Shiek, J. Bill, and K. Peterson. Bare-bones, baroque-pop harmonies over simple guitar parts and percussion, pegging them on first listen as Bacharach-tinged lo-fi bedroom folk contemporaries of Peter Paul & Mary (fittingly, “Rich Man, Poor Man” is a cover of a Peter Paul & Mary song, originally released in 1968). But! there’s more–there’s an unsmilingly blunt closeness to the vocal quality that reminds me of Marine Girls, The Roches, but also sounds much more antiquated than what I associate with 1969–it reminds me a lot of the tones that I’m used to hearing in recordings from the 50’s, or even the 40’s–though maybe that’s just degraded recording quality coloring my perception.

These swooning, girl group harmonies will definitely work for fans of Quarteto Em Cy, but these are more baroque in sensibility, and not just because there’s a gorgeously on-the-nose version of “Scarborough Fair.” Though this record is roughly half covers, and though there are so many direct reference points, it still feels extraordinarily like its own world. Deeply golden-toned, which is perhaps what makes it feel like such a balm in the wintertime. I’m not sure if this turns everyone else into a pile of goo in the way that it does for me, but I will say that if it’s for you, it’s definitely for you. Anyone have a nice FLAC rip of this that they’d like to share?

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