Victim of Romance, Mama & The Papa's only solo album, from 1977 is well worth a listen. A Rock and Roll curio, it wasn't a commercial success at the time of its release but has aged well, coming across as a vaguely melancholic coda to one of the sadder tales of the core Love & Peace bands.
Things didn't turn out too well for the members of The Mamas & the Papas all things considered once the California Dreamin^ dream curdled which it seemed to do pretty much right from the off. Victim of Romance acts as a soundtrack to much of this sadness. Produced by Jack Nitzsche, it's a collection of nostalgia hued songs written by Phillips and a number of her music biz friends.
Phillip^s voice is not particularly strong but certainly passable and the songs are sturdy and have an air of doomed romance to them. Many of them seem to hark back to Doo Wop and The Girl Group sound of the Fifties and early Sixties.
Acting as a companion piece to John Phillip's Wolf King of LA, Cass's Bubblegum Lemonade and Denny Doherty's Watcha Gonna Do. All good records. The hangover the morning after.
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