LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Label: Pacemaker Entertainment

The Paupers’ Ellis Island is the second and final album by the Toronto psychedelic rock group, originally released on Verve Forecast in 1968. Compared with their debut, it is a more mature and expansive record, with longer songs, richer arrangements and a darker sense of atmosphere. The band stretch out into heavy psych, blues-rock and folk-coloured passages, while still keeping the songwriting sharp and memorable.

With Skip Prokop and Adam Mitchell still central to the sound, the album moves from the wide-open psych of South Down Road to the compact single Cairo Hotel, the heavier Numbers and the reflective closing track Juliana. This Pacemaker CD reissue presents the complete album and adds three bonus tracks from the group’s single material.

1. South Down Road – 8:30
2. Cairo Hotel – 4:10
3. Can't Go On – 3:35
4. Another Man's Hair On My Razor – 4:15
5. Numbers – 5:33
6. Oh That She Might – 4:56
7. Yes I Know – 6:23
8. Ask Her Again – 4:00
9. Juliana – 2:49

10. If I Call You By Some Name
11. Copper Penny
12. White Song