If John Barry scored a movie about HR Pufnstuf, it would sound something like this: swirly strings, booming timps, multi-part vocals, garage guitars. All in the service of some tooth-rottingly saccharine whimsy (“General Humpty”) but also some heart-stopping pop hooks (“Dream Street”). A reminder of that sunlit, post-Sgt Pepper plateau when optimistic dissent became as mainstream a money machine as Coca-Cola. Not quite Spanky And Our Gang, but still a wonderful, garish, Lolly Gobble Choc Bomb of an album. Third Rail’s Joey Levine would go on to be, via Ohio Express, one of bubblegum’s greatest icons.
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