Guilty pleasures are just that, things that one should probably not admit enjoying, but one enjoys nonetheless. The band from Canada, Klaatu, is just one of those pleasures. Nerdy, silly, yet earnest, with wonderfully Beatlesque hooks and high production values, one cannot help but have a soft spot for these three over-achievers.

Klaatu came onto the scene in 1976 with their first album 3:47 EST or simply called Klaatu. It caused a stir when it was suggested by Providence Journal reviewer Steve Smith that this band was a reformation of the Beatles, or at the very least, some of the Beatles. There were many "clues" in the music, or so they said, and the band was not identified anywhere on the album. This caused the first disc to sell well in excess of 500,000 copies. They became the hype story of 1977, per Rolling Stone magazine.

It was somewhat dissapointing that after thier third album, it was reviewed that the band consisted of three Canadian session musicians. They were John Woloschuk, Dee Long, and Terry Draper. (I know, no household names there.) When asked why they had remained anonymous for their first three albums, the answer was simple, they wanted the music judged on its own merits. The Beatles rumor was originally a fortunate and later unfortunate occurrance.

The only "hit" was "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft," which was a minor hit for them and a top forty hit for, of all people, the Carpenters. I remember my mother had the album of the Carpenters. I remember hating it.

Their second album, Hope, is the most ambitious and in some ways the most consistent. Whereas the first album was a collection of singles and other recordings made over the course of a few years, Hope was written and conceived as a whole, with the last side similar to the Beatles second side of Abbey Road, a group of songs that were intended to go together.

They say they never encouraged the Beatles rumor, but if you listen carefully to the music, some of it has Beatles all over it. Especially "Sub Rosa Subway," "California Jam," "Dr. Marvello," and in some ways "The Tale of Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby," the last one kind of like a song Ringo would sing because of his limited vocal ability. "Calling Occupants..." is the magnum opus here though, a weaving of Beatlesque phrases, dopey hope that we will all be one happy galaxy, and a long drawn out ending similar to the "Hey Jude" approach.

Some of the songs such as "Little Neutrino," "True Life Hero," and the unfortunately named "Anus of Uranus" sound nothing like the Beatles. I have always really liked "Anus of Uranus" which was originally called "Hanus of Uranus," and still may be, but not according to the liner notes on the album.

Almost impossible to understand without a lyric sheet is "Little Neutrino," which is a song about those little space particles called neutrinos that are so small they pass through solid objects, in fact through all of us continually. Odd choice of subject matter for a song, but spacey as all heck. The words to this one are:

Scientifically very accurate, to tell the truth.

The second disc Hope has it's moments as well. I never cared much for the first song, "We're Off You Know," but I always dug "Madman" and "Around the Universe in 80 Days." Remember, I was in 8th grade or so when this came out, and I wrote a bunch of songs with a friend of mine named Robert Hanson based on space wars and themes, and this was a real find. I wanted to have a band just like this.

I think my favorite on Hope was "Long Live Politzania," a ham fisted orchestral rock opera like extravaganza which brought about 1984 themes on top of a peace message that had all the subtlety of a jack hammer.

The last four songs on the disc, "The Lonliest of Creatures," "Prelude," "So Said the Lighthouse Keeper," and "Hope" are meant to go together. I especially like "Prelude" and some of it's electric guitar lines and orchestration. Interestingly, they went to London to record the LSO and a lot of it was a little out of tune due to problems of standards of pitch, as well as not as well recorded, but they did a good job getting this together.

They made three more albums after this, Sir Army Suit (1978), Endangered Species (1980), and Magentalane (1981. Of these, Sir Army Suit is probably the best. Capitol Records, which had quite4 an investment in the group, forced them to record with session musicians for Endangered Species and what came out was a pleasing sounding but shallow paint by numbers pop/rock record. After it sold about 5 copies, Capitol dropped them. The last album, Magentalane was hailed as a "return to form," but I found the magic gone.