The Tygers "Second Album"

(Fairtone)  This is the sophomore album by the Artists Formally Known as Tony and the Tygers…after a short 42 year hiatus. If you’re expecting wild rock (not a bad guess looking at Tony Dancy’s John Kay hair and ‘stache on the cover) you obviously never heard their ’68 proto-soft rock lush pop single “Little By Little.” After the band failed to follow up on their hit Tony sand a bandmate headed to Hollywood and became staff musicians for sitcoms. So obviously this ain’t gonna be a rough and raw d.i.y. album. The recording here is so slick that this is genuinely weird. Lovely, ornate production, including some killer Nashville pedal steel on the opener, make this diverse set of pop pretty intense, in an smooth adult way. Some songs sound like the State Fair version of CCR, some sound like the actual Steely Dan! Better than the last Tygers of Pan Tang CD and almost as good as the Josie and the Pussycats record that came free with the other Tony the Tiger’s box of cereal in 1970.