KLAATU : SIR ARMY SUIT / MAGENTALANE

    Sir Army Suit
  1. A Routine Day
  2. Juicy Luicy
  3. Everybody Took a Holiday
  4. Older
  5. Dear Christine
  6. Mister Manson
  7. Tokeymor Field
  8. Perpetual Motion Machine
  9. Chérie
  10. Silly Boys
    Magentalane
  11. A Million Miles Away
  12. The Love of a Woman
  13. Blue Smoke
  14. I Don't Wanna Go Home
  15. December Dream
  16. Magentalane
  17. At the End of the Rainbow
  18. Mrs. Toad's Cookies
  19. Maybe I'll Move to Mars
  20. Magentalane (...It Feels So Good)
    Bonus :
  21. I can't help it
  22. knee deep in love
  23. all good things

Label : Collector's Choice Music

Length : 79:13

Released : 1978 (Sir Army Suit) / 1981 (Magentalane)

Review for Sir Army Suit (AllMusic) : Sir Army Suit was Klaatu's attempt to make an album of straight pop songs and recover from the sophomore slump of Hope. There are some nifty pop numbers here, but the record received virtually no airplay, critics gave it a lukewarm response, and the group plunged further into obscurity. Once the Beatles rumor died, it appeared nobody wanted to accept Klaatu as Klaatu. In truth, the threesome still had difficulty establishing a sound and identity of their own, which wasn't helped by their continued anonymity (again, no photos or credits). The songs themselves hopped from '60s pop to heavy metal. On the most successful songs (the '60s pop), the titles are a giveaway: "A Routine Day," "Dear Christine," and "Tokeymor Field" can be heard as either glittering retro-pop at best, or at worst an unabashed plagiarism of the British Invasion. Top honor, though, must go to "Juicy Lucy," an exuberant splash of horn-inflected disco that at least brought them close to their own musical time and place.
Review for Magentalane (AllMusic) : Originally issued in 1981, Klaatu's fifth and final album, Magentalane, is highlighted by the elegiac ballad "December Dream," an homage to the recently slain John Lennon that eerily mirrors the fallen Beatle's own late-period work. Even with the mystery of their identities long ago solved, Klaatu still recalls the Fab Four with remarkable accuracy: "I Don't Wanna Go Home" conjures vintage McCartney, while "Mrs. Toad's Cookies" is like a Yellow Submarine track left on the cutting room floor. "A Million Miles Away" and "The Love of a Woman," on the other hand, bring to mind Electric Light Orchestra - inspiration once removed.