Idea (Remastered)

The Bee Gees' third album, released in 1968, calms with its gentle psych and ornate pop. It’s an exquisitely sung, performed, and arranged album that rocks a bit more than their previous two albums without sacrificing any of the songcraft, which, in many ways, was influenced by The Beatles. The songs bloom with a full-band sound, equal parts melancholy countryside and Carnaby Street fanfare: The swooning mellotron and lashing acoustic guitars make “Indian Gin & Whiskey Dry” about the best two-minute ode to drinking in all of pop, while the popping “Kitty Kan” would’ve made a killer Hollies song. The brassy and hypnotically morose “I Have Decided to Join the Air Force” finds the sad protagonist signing up for war because it’s better than suffering a lonely home life. The soaring and dramatic “When the Swallows Fly” (with a title from Wordsworth) balladizes the idea of flight, while a flute and mellotron back up Barry Gibb’s pensive and Lennonesque vocals on the beautifully folksy “Kilburn Towers.” And, truly, “I Started a Joke” did get the whole world singing to The Bee Gees, if only their hits.