You’d think after Peter and The Penguins, I would be done with Beatle styled rock bands this year… well no. In Germany, the leader of the Beatles Revival Band, Richard Edward Kersten (Frank) wanted to write Beatlesque songs, with a modern studio flair. So he hooked up with a young Ronson Jonson (Furt) and the results are here. Opening with the very Rain-like “Sipping Lemonade In The Sunshine,” Frank and Furt’s vocal and instrumental skills will win you over. “Flow Down Stream” mixes sitar and the albums groovy production techniques are similar to The Pillbugs. The melodies are really good here, and a few highlights are the sunny “Don’t Care Cos I Love You” and early Mersey ditty “Picture On My Wall” with just the right amount of handclaps and perfectly timed riffs. And it’s not all Fab Four by-the-numbers either, as they veer off the template just enough to keep it interesting with the mid tempo “Someday” and the poignant ballad “It All Equals In The End.” These tunes are more comparable to fellow German transplant Martin Gordon, especially the last track “It’s Such A Long Time,” full of long psychedelic passages. Pop fans can relax and float downstream with this one.
