Although their chart hits had long since dried up, Stop Your Motor (1971)
became the Association's penultimate long-player and second to last attempt
at garnering any degree of hipness. Sadly, the sextet could not have been
more out of step with the concurrent popular music trends, which must
have been doubly frustrating as this effort actually includes a fair share
of decent tunes that would have fit nicely into the burgeoning singer/songwriter
genre. When Stop Your Motor was issued in the summer of 1971, it heralded
the end of a two-year absence of new material. In the interim there had
also been marked change behind the scenes. Most notable was the slightly
ersatz production style of Ray Pohlman, a longtime session musician and
member of Hal Blaine's infamous "Wrecking Crew." Yet another
L.A. studio stalwart, Don Randi, had taken the reigns of one of the Association's
most vital assets -- scoring the band's trademark vocal harmonies. Randi's
handiwork is at its best on the midtempo opener, "Bring Yourself
Home," or the decidedly laid-back lilt of "It's Got to Be Real."
While the disc primarily consists of originals from within the combo's
own ranks, "P.F. Sloan" is not only one of the record's best
tracks, it was penned by singer/songwriter Jimmy Webb as a paean to the
West Coast balladeer and composer of the same name. Among Sloan's best-known
works are "Eve of Destruction," "Sins of a Family,"
and "Lollipop Train (You Never Had It So Good)." In fact, the
Association covered Sloan's "On a Quiet Night" some four years
earlier for the Insight Out (1967) album. Other standouts include Terry
Kirkman's (percussion/woodwind) "That's Racin'," which is a
whimsical precursor to the burgeoning stock car competitions that would
evolve into the NASCAR craze over the ensuing decades. Perhaps the track
that most accurately recaptures the Association of old is Gary "Jules"
Alexander's (guitar/vocals) familiar mixture of trippy-tinged folk-rock
on "Funny Kind of Song," which recalls his earlier contributions
"Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" and "Remember."
Stop Your Motor was essentially stillborn upon release, stalling out at
number 158 and driving a final nail in the band's relationship with Warner
Bros., with whom they had been associated for five years. They would return
with the equally dismissed Waterbeds in Trinidad! (1972) before splintering
shortly after the death of Brian Cole (vocals/bass) in August of 1972.
(by Lindsay Planer, All
Music Guide)
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