Time & Charges in Bloomington, MN

Producer
James William Guercio
took on such a major role in
the Buckinghams
' second album that he amounted to a more influential force, perhaps, than anyone in the band. He arranged, conducted, and wrote or co-wrote six of the ten selections. Most noticeably, there were
orchestral
arrangements, complete with tympanis and blaring horns, that wouldn't have been out of place in film scores, large
jazz
bands, or even (at their most dissonant) early
Frank Zappa
records. Obviously he and/or the band were trying to be more
experimental
than they could on their hit singles, and the inclusion of the hit
pop
singles
"Don't You Care"
and
"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"
made the LP all the more a strange affair. Not nearly as
rock
-oriented as their debut album, it was a quirky failure, as
were ultimately much more suited towards making AM singles than delving into somewhat strange orchestrated horn
(although
Guercio
's songs were usually fairly hummable love songs when the arrangements were stripped away). In fact, the strongest cut other than the hit singles,
"Remember,"
could have been a hit without the oddball horn charts.
Sundazed
combined
Time & Changes
with the group's third LP,
Portraits
, on a single-disc CD reissue. ~ Richie Unterberger