“Try Too Hard” by The Dave Clark Five - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1966Album Chart of the Decade: 1960s

TJR says

The LP “Try Too Hard” (Epic LN 24198) was released in the USA in March 1966. A 20 minute album which leads off with it’s only single - “Try Too Hard” # 12 in the US, didn’t chart in the UK. Is this typically indicative of why these albums were only released Stateside? As often is the case, there are some good tunes to be found on their albums - “I Never Will” and “I’m Looking In” are both head-bobbing 3 chord goodies digging on “Hang On Sloopy”. The cerebral “Ever Since You’ve Been Away” is drenched in a psychedelic reverb which offers yet another new stylisic spin for the quintet. The song’s not all that, but it’s good to hear them continue to probe in new directions. The guitars get fuzzed up to Kinks-Max-10 proportions on the album’s highlight “I Really Love You” which sublimally rips right into Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me” via The Fab Fours “Day Tripper”. They immediately keep the heavy crunching intact on “It Don’t Feel Good”, but with diminishing returns already… pushin’ too hard as yer Seeds might say. Album closer “I Know” rips the fuzz into Bo Diddley - predating Stooges 1969 by 3 years. Such were the great contradictions of the Dave Clark Five…

The Jukebox Rebel
27–Jul–2008

Tracklist
A1 [02:10] 5.5.png The Dave Clark Five - Try Too Hard (Dave Clark, Mike Smith) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A2 [02:11] 4.4.png The Dave Clark Five - Today (Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson) Pop Ballad
A3 [01:55] 6.7.png The Dave Clark Five - I Never Will (Dave Clark, Denis Payton) Pop
A4 [02:05] 6.6.png The Dave Clark Five - Looking In (Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A5 [01:35] 5.7.png The Dave Clark Five - Ever Since You’ve Been Away (Dave Clark, Denis Payton) Cerebral Pop
B1 [02:01] 6.3.png The Dave Clark Five - Somebody Find A New Love (Dave Clark, Mike Smith) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B2 [01:55] 7.0.png The Dave Clark Five - I Really Love You (Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson) Proto-Punk
B3 [01:42] 5.3.png The Dave Clark Five - It Don’t Feel Good (Dave Clark, Denis Payton) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B4 [01:57] 4.4.png The Dave Clark Five - Scared Of Falling In Love (Dave Clark, Mike Smith) Pop Ballad
B5 [02:39] 6.6.png The Dave Clark Five - I Know (Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson) Rock n Roll / Rockabilly
© The Jukebox Rebel 2005-2020 All Rights Reserved