A terrible thing happened to American rock music during the mid ‘60s. Everyone waited for the Brits to cue to the next big thing – and I suppose, hearing the Beatles come outta nowhere in that time would have been just short of shocking, but there didn’t and doesn’t remain a good reason as to why every band in the States copped some of the Limey style. It’s all the equivalent to a mama bird pre-chewing food for its babies – we need not eat from the plate of another, especially if we initially provided the sustenance. That might be a weak metaphor – sorry, it’s Sunday – but some of the limp music that arose in the wake of the British Invasion was worse. Lazy Smoke can’t be said to be horrible – or even bad for that matter – but without the Beatles, the template from which the band worked would have been drastically different.

Referring to an album as a lost psych masterpieces is quite clearly obnoxious – especially since words like masterpiece, indispensible and brilliant get tossed around a little too readily today. Even if that weren’t the case, though, it’d be difficult to summon too many overtly positive comments on Lazy Smoke’s one full length disc - Corridor of Faces.

The name of the disc can – perhaps – be thought of as an LSD reference. Maybe not, but judging from the vintage of Lazy Smoke’s borrowing from the Beatles, drugs were probably close at hand. At least in part, this particular aspect of the band’s sound can be figured – the serpentine guitar of “Salty People” announces a group that’s well versed in not just Brit rock stuffs, but whatever eastern vibes those foreigners were groovin’ on while recording The White Album or Her Satanic Majesty’s Request. The musical intelligence of this group – or at least its principal composer John Pollano – actually comes across pretty well.

Having only been in existence for only two years before recording Corridor of Faces actually displays the innate ability that these Massachusetts natives possessed. Channeling this talent into a pretty narrow tributary, though, didn’t serve the album too well. Instead of working across the expanding palette of psych, Lazy Smoke languishes in the genre’s more fey territories. It works some of the time – again occasionally coming off as some Beatles’ ballad, “Sarah Saturday” specifically. And while that influence is omnipresent, so too is the band’s lack of solid compositions.

Alternately working through some intricate melodic passages and muscular soloing, the middle school styled drumming really detracts from the rest of the work – and even with some of the more pleasing melodies here, the rhythm section seems to negatively affect that guitar attempting to jangle out some chords.

The better portions of Corridor of Faces, though, are generally tied to sections of these sloppy endeavors. Not having a proper way by which to end “There Was a Time,” the band warbles some nonsensical succession of notes as the track slowly fades out. Unintentional, of course, Lazy Smoke bumps into some weirdo psych on the way to copping a pair of Beatle boots and a mohair jacket.