The Rembrandts - LP - Cassette

"I'll Be There For You (Theme From Friends)" was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.Poor Phil Solem and Danny Wilde. They spend their lives perfecting the baroque pop aesthetic of the Beatles, Crowded House and all the crafty popsmiths that came in between, and they end up being known as the guys who did the theme to that TV show. But, hey, there's a fine tradition of crafty popsmiths doing TV--from Sonny Curtis, who wrote both "I Fought The Law" for the Bobby Fuller Four and "Love Is All Around" for Mary Tyler Moore, to John Sebastian, who went from the Lovin' Spoonful to "Welcome Back Kotter." As for The Rembrandts, they probably wrote "I'll Be There For You," the jangly theme from FRIENDS, in about fifteen minutes, and it'll keep them in residuals for the rest of their lives. This will free them to make the kind of swell pop songs--driven by deceptively catchy chord changes, inventive arrangements and brotherly harmonies--that fill up the remainder of their third album.The first sound on LP is of a needle dropping gently on old vinyl, and that is followed by "End Of The Beginning," a brooding bit of psychedelic pop with dark cello lines and backward guitar parts that bring to mind the Beatles of REVOLVER and MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR. "This House Is Not A Home" has those big suspended guitar chords that fans of the Byrds and Tom Petty will instantly recognize, and "Easy To Forget," "April 29" and "As Long As I Am Breathing" (love songs all) are stocked with pop bridges that seemingly come out of nowhere, then sound like they've been there all along. Which is the exact effect most Rembrandts songs will have on you.

Song List
1. End Of The Beginning
2. Easy To Forget
3. My Own Way
4. Don't Hide Your Love
5. Drowning In Your Tears
6. This House Is Not A Home
7. April 29
8. Lovin' Me Insane
9. There Goes Lucy
10. As Long As I Am Breathing
11. Call Me
12. Comin' Home
13. What Will It Take
14. Other Side Of Night, The
15. I'll Be There For You (Theme From Friends)