Vinyl-a-Day 28: The Poppy Family Featuring Susan Jacks (London Records, 1970)

With its brooding and beautiful psych-rock sound, Canadian duo The Poppy Family could almost be called the antithesis of The Partridge Family and The Cowsills. Before Terry Jacks had his 1974 smash-hit “Seasons in the Sun,” he produced this melancholy masterpiece, fronted by his then-wife Susan. “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?”, which hit #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., and its sister single “That’s Where I Went Wrong”  stand in stark contrast to the bright, cheerful, kitschy sounds of the era - like if The Carpenters had embraced only the melodramatic elements of “Rainy Days and Mondays.” Honorable mentions also go to “Beyond the Clouds,” “A Good Thing Lost,” and “You Took My Moonlight Away.”