The Cyrkle

Revival

Big Stir

The band’s heyday was the mid 1960s with a song written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley (of The Seekers), “Red Rubber Ball.” It went gold in the US and hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, kept from #1 by “Paperback Writer.” They opened for the Beatles on their final US tour. Brian Epstein had discovered them, and John Lennon gave them their name.

They disbanded in 1970, and but now the surviving members of the band have put out this comeback album, and what a comeback it is! They sound like the elder statesman they are, with sweet love songs, even the break-up ones. “It’s All Right It’s Okay” is about getting old gracefully. Some songs ape the love and peace of the 60s, like “Singing for Tomorrow.”

As good as those songs are, it’s the last few that do it for me, starting with “We Were There” and “We Thought We Could Fly” telling the band’s history, the definitive version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” and the fine remakes of “Red Rubber Ball" and their Top 20 second hit. “Turn-Down Day.”

These songs alone are worth the price of admission, but the whole album is wonderful sunshine pop, even when the sad ones make for partly cloudy days. “Center of the World” brings the band into the 21st Century, even if it sounds like the aughts with their references to chat rooms and instant messages. It still sounds like today nevertheless, as does the rest of this fun, gentle, sweet, rocking, and great album, and with “Red Rubber Ball” a staple of oldies stations, it's like they’ve never been away either.

Andrea Weiss