Description

Something New and Fresh is an album by the American singer and songwriter Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, released on Neworld Media in May 1978, distributed by Sparrow Records. The album was produced by Bob Milstein and Noel Paul Stookey.

A large, surprisingly diverse and talented cast of musical guests and engineering wizards put the final polish on this challenging mixture of Stookey songs and concepts. Truly a potpourri of passion and experimentation produced and recorded over a span of three years (1972-1975) and in a half dozen studios – including the basement of the Stookey family house in surburban New York and an abandoned hen house on the coast of Maine – it nonetheless demonstrates a remarkable thematic coherence; doubtless derived from its spiritual attentiveness.

While Something New And Fresh contains some of Paul’s usual singer/songwriter blend of folk, pop and rock, he also frequently wanders off the path to try out things like Dixieland («There Was A Boy»), a cappella («4-D», with its repeated line of “don’t do dat dope anymore”), a prog-ish synthesizer/guitar instrumental («Underwater»), a sing-along of «Take Me Out To The Ballgame», a classical Bach tune («Et Misericordia») and even a segment of robotically spoken words («Aridd Le»). On the smooth jazzy «Moremo Ontu Ne» you’ll have to decode lyrics like “ar eyou go odat ridd lesha Veyou solvedth eon einyou rheart?”. Perhaps it’s just a bit too diverse overall, as some of the experimental tracks can tend to interrupt the flow of the album. My personal fave here is «Please Porridge Peace», a side-trip into Grateful Dead-ish rock. Front cover is a cool green glow-in-the-dark image of Paul’s face – used to scare the heck out of my son when he was little. [Ken Scott, The Archivist]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/something-new-and-fresh/189152127)

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “The Winner” – 3:22
A2. “There Was A Boy” – 3:21
A3. “Numero 2” – 2:14
A4. “Listen To The Love” – 3:14
A5. “Underwater” (Instrumental) – 2:52
A6. “Remember/Pokey” – 3:55

Side Two
B1. “You’re The Only One” – 4:32
B2. “Country Song” – 3:20
B3. “Aridd Le” – 0:34
B4. “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” – 0:45
B5. “Don’t Use My Name” – 1:43
B6. “Please Porridge Peace” – 2:23
B7. “4-D” – 0:53
B8. “Moremo Ontu Ne” – 2:55
B9. “Et Misericordia” – 3:26

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Neworld Media. Later re-issued on CD featuring “Tom Quick”, a track previously available only on the original Australian version that was released a year before the US edition.