There's Gonna Be a Storm - The Complete Recordings 1966-1969

New York City’s The Left Banke had their share of inner strife, but in the late ’60s the band made an incredible body of baroque-pop (led mostly by Steve Martin-Caro’s honeyed voice) that sidled up nicely to The Bee Gees and The Zombies. This set collects the teen band’s two albums and non-LP singles. There’s mad garage riffing (“I Haven’t Got the Nerve”), guitar fuzz-bombing (“Lazy Day”), and a country-esque sing-along (“What Do You Know”). There’s also sweet syrupy jangle (“She May Call You Up Tonight”), shimmering melancholy (“Dark Is the Bark”), and a brass-enhanced Burt Bacharach doppelganger (“In the Morning Light”). You can’t escape the hypnotic beauty of the hits “Pretty Ballerina” and “Walk Away Renee,” with their mournful strings and intricate three-part harmonies, nor the stunner “Desiree,” whose intricately arranged harmonies and horns resemble The Association at their best.