Dragonfly

A favorite among some collectors of rare late-'60s/early-'70s psychedelic albums, Dragonfly's self-titled LP is a not-so-finely balanced mixture of the sort of overwrought bluesy hard rock by bands of the period like Iron Butterfly with the poppier, more power chord-driven hard rock of the late-'60s Who. While it might be predictable for a critic to prefer the Who influences to the more generic psychedelic hard rock ones, Dragonfly are at their best when they favor the former over the latter. When they get into more standard blustery macho rock a la "Blue Monday" (not the Fats Domino classic) or "Hoochie Coochie Man," they're pretty dispensable. Yet "Portrait of Youth" has some powerhouse drumming that seems to make it pretty unlikely the percussionist hadn't avidly studied Keith Moon, and passages nodding to foppish late-'60s British pop-psychedelia are mixed into the package, sometimes incongruously so. Furious distorted guitar and some psychedelic trickery are in relative abundance, yet not at the expense of some fairly Who-ish harmonies and airier sensibilities. But there aren't any really outstanding songs here, and the mix of approaches can be cluttered and confused. ~ Richie Unterberger