Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, LA’s 20/20 started out cute and unthreatening, their lush vocal harmonies announcing their love for the Beatles, Byrds and Beach Boys. That’s not to say that Steve Allen and his cohorts aren’t interesting in their own right: on their self-titled debut, producer Earle Mankey helps the band convert their influences into a striking present-tense form, adding dabs of electronics to dense arrangements. Songs like the scene-defining “Yellow Pills” and “Remember the Lightning” give the impression of being squeezed into a smaller space than is safe, and that contents-under-pressure tension adds an exciting edge.
Recorded without Mankey, Look Out! is pleasing, but doesn’t sparkle the way 20/20 does. More spacious sound exposes the essential banality of the material and shows up the often formulaic nature of the vocal harmonies.
After a lack of commercial acceptance (and the end of the industry’s infatuation with skinny-tied power pop bands) cost them their major-label deal, 20/20 dropped out of national sight, but came back in late ’82 as a trio with an independent release that unfortunately isn’t very impressive. The band subsequently evaporated; guitarist Chris Silagyi became a record producer.
20/20/Look Out! is a most welcome reissue of the first two releases. The 20/20 LP stands proudly as one of the genre’s best (and most unique sounding, thanks to Earle Mankey’s imaginative production trickery), with scads of tuneful songs from singer-guitarist Steve Allen and singer-bassist Ron Flynt. If Look Out! doesn’t quite reach the heights of the debut, three or four songs (especially the big-beat “Nuclear Boy”) remain solid examples of decade-turning skinny-tie rock.
Shortly after the twofer reissue of those two albums, 20/20 released its first new music in over a decade. 4 Day Tornado (named for its brief recording schedule) sounds completely different from the 20/20 of old. True to their pop roots but less British-sounding than on past efforts, Flynt and Allen (along with new drummer Bill Belknap) offer the mesmerizing, atmospheric “Watching the Headlights Burn” and the propulsive “Nothing at All.” There’s life in these (not so) old boys yet.
Back to California, released nearly a half-century after the band’s beginnings, is commendably solid. Well-played and produced, with songs that deserve to be recorded. The album is tuneful and occasionally energy-charged, packed with generous harmony vocals and chiming guitars: the sound of genre-agnostic West Coast mainstream rock as it once was.