The Tokens

One of the most highly sought-after albums of the late-'60s sunshine pop scene -- Warner Bros. first rejected the album outright, then pressed a mere 200 copies to fulfill a contractual obligation, rarities that crazed collectors later spent thousands of dollars on -- The Tokens' Intercourse has since been praised to the skies by those who equate rarity with quality. In reality, having been reissued on CD with a few extra tracks from the same period (and missing the halfhearted cover of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" that had been tacked onto the original release) and readily available to all, its charms and flaws are much easier to see. It's not a masterpiece. Heck, it's not even as good as Del Shannon's The Further Adventures of Charles Westover or Harpers Bizarre's The Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre, the albums it most closely resembles. But it's pretty good, a collection of earnest soft pop songs connected with brief, mildly psychedelic interludes and featuring Mellotron and occasional strings on some cuts. A couple of songs, most notably "You Loser, You Fool" and "I Could Be," resemble early Chicago or post-Al Kooper Blood, Sweat & Tears. It's certainly worth the list price, especially for die-hard sunshine pop fans, but one has to assume that the people who paid so dearly for the original issues might have felt a bit cheated when they finally heard it. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide