Would You Believe

Former Rolling Stones manager/Immediate Records boss Andrew Loog Oldham was so enamoured with The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds that he enlisted Immediate’s 18-year-old in-house songwriter Billy Nicholls to create a British answer to Brian Wilson’s masterpiece. While it doesn’t quite match such lofty ambitions, Would You Believe is a delightful collection of baroque, psychedelic pop. The Small Faces’ Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott make an appearance, as does Stones keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, as Nicholls’ dreamy melodies skip through clouds of harmonies and lushly-orchestrated arrangements courtesy of Oldham. Fans of The Zombies’ Odessey And Oracle will find much to love here, but there’s a warped strangeness to the record that actually places it much closer to Wilson’s aborted Smile, particularly on the ambitious harpsichord-led suite “Daytime Girl.”