Turtle Soup
By The Turtles
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Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Come Over 2:21
- A2 House on the Hill 3:02
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orchestration
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- A3 She Always Leaves Me Laughing 2:49
- A4 How You Loved Me 3:01
- A5 Torn Between Temptations 2:48
- A6 Love in the City 3:45
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orchestration
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- B1 Bachelor Mother 2:43
- B2 John and Julie 3:12
- B3 Hot Little Hands 4:12
- B4 Somewhere Friday Night 3:23
- B5 Dance This Dance 3:31
- B6 You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain 2:46
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orchestration
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- Total length: 37:33
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Review
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9 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Turtle Soup [p] 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Turtle Soup 33 rpm, Remastered
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Turtle Soup Bonus Tracks
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Turtle Soup Bonus Tracks
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Turtle Soup Paper/Cardboard Sleeve
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Turtle Soup Bonus Tracks, Deluxe Edition, Gatefold, Remastered
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Turtle Soup Bonus CD, Digipak, Remastered
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9 Reviews
Near Perfect Pop Record By The Turtles
Battle of the Bands showed that the Turtles had serious talent. But their follow up album Turtle Soup is where they deliver the goods with a determined focus, as every song on the album is very good. FYI, Ray Davies of The Kinks produced the record. But what the album lacks is million selling hit singles. Three singles were released, but none of them got traction for whatever reasons.
But it's hard not to like the following irresistible songs on the album:
- House On A Hill
- She Always Leaves Me Laughing
- How You Loved Me
- Torn Between Temptations
- Love In The City
- Dance This Dance
- You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain
In summary, Turtle Soup is full of wonderful hooks, melodies, vocals, and charm. While containing no million selling hit singles, all the songs are very good, which makes for an excellent album.
What a great swan song for the band, as this would be their last. Enjoy.
Published
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I have a feeling that The Turtles knew they were done; just as they were getting really good, too! On Turtle Soup, we get another sonic change for the band as they strip back their sound and create more singer-songwriter type material. The end result is up there with some of The Turtles' best material, moodier and often grittier while still remaining pop centric enough to be a fun album through and through. An evolution from the sunshine pop that defined their career, The Turtles have grown greatly in 2 years.
"Come Over" is a good way to begin the album. A bluesy opener with a rockin' chorus, this song immediately demonstrates the sonic change on the album. "House on the Hill" is the first of a few major highlights on the album. I love the chorus on this song; it's so catchy. "She Always Leaves Me Laughing" is a bit of a lyrically bittersweet song, but it's underhanded by the usual positive ethos of The Turtles. This song's pretty solid. "How You Loved Me" is a bit of a weak song, but it's saved by a solid vocal performance and some great drumming courtesy of John Seiter. "Torn Between Temptation" is another absolute favorite of mine from the album. The chorus has some excellent harmonies, and it proves that through and through The Turtles could write a mean fucking hook. "Love in the City" has some of the best vocals on the entire album, hands down. This is a glorious pop song, and another highlight from album.
"Bachelor Mother" has a slight country tinge to it, and I also really like this song. It's just very fun, and I want to re-emphasize that these guys could write an excellent hook. "John and Julie" is a little bit mediocre. This song feels like it's missing something; at points its so instrumentally sparse that it feels like a demo. "Hot LIttle Hands" is the album's weakest song in my boring. It's drawn out and too boring to justify a 4 minute length. Forgettable is a decent word to describe it. "Somewhere Friday Night" is a softer, almost ballad-esque moment that reminds me of a Bowie song for some reason. Another album favorite. "Dance This Dance" is very okay and I don't really have much more to say there. "You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain" is a perfect closing track. This is pretty much traditional Turtles through and through, and it's glorious and upbeat and beautiful from start to finish. With this album being the final one they recorded, it also feels like a fitting curtain call for the group. What a great final note.
The Turtles gave us one hell of a goodbye with Turtle Soup. It's a matured version of the group, and every strength of the group is present on this album. Occasionally gritty, mostly intelligently performed, and complete with hints of beauty throughout. A brilliant grand finale for one of pop's most iconic acts.
8/10
"Come Over" is a good way to begin the album. A bluesy opener with a rockin' chorus, this song immediately demonstrates the sonic change on the album. "House on the Hill" is the first of a few major highlights on the album. I love the chorus on this song; it's so catchy. "She Always Leaves Me Laughing" is a bit of a lyrically bittersweet song, but it's underhanded by the usual positive ethos of The Turtles. This song's pretty solid. "How You Loved Me" is a bit of a weak song, but it's saved by a solid vocal performance and some great drumming courtesy of John Seiter. "Torn Between Temptation" is another absolute favorite of mine from the album. The chorus has some excellent harmonies, and it proves that through and through The Turtles could write a mean fucking hook. "Love in the City" has some of the best vocals on the entire album, hands down. This is a glorious pop song, and another highlight from album.
"Bachelor Mother" has a slight country tinge to it, and I also really like this song. It's just very fun, and I want to re-emphasize that these guys could write an excellent hook. "John and Julie" is a little bit mediocre. This song feels like it's missing something; at points its so instrumentally sparse that it feels like a demo. "Hot LIttle Hands" is the album's weakest song in my boring. It's drawn out and too boring to justify a 4 minute length. Forgettable is a decent word to describe it. "Somewhere Friday Night" is a softer, almost ballad-esque moment that reminds me of a Bowie song for some reason. Another album favorite. "Dance This Dance" is very okay and I don't really have much more to say there. "You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain" is a perfect closing track. This is pretty much traditional Turtles through and through, and it's glorious and upbeat and beautiful from start to finish. With this album being the final one they recorded, it also feels like a fitting curtain call for the group. What a great final note.
The Turtles gave us one hell of a goodbye with Turtle Soup. It's a matured version of the group, and every strength of the group is present on this album. Occasionally gritty, mostly intelligently performed, and complete with hints of beauty throughout. A brilliant grand finale for one of pop's most iconic acts.
8/10
Published
What ended up being the final Turtles album shows the band moving in yet another new direction. After having been a surf-rock band, a folk-rock band, a sunshine pop band, and the sort of band capable of putting out the psychedelic melange of styles that characterized Battle of the Bands, the Turtles hop on the current going thing once more: this time, stripped-back singer-songwriter type material. For the first (and, of course, last) time, every song on the album was written by a band member; the songs are credited to the band jointly, but were mostly written individually or by subsets of the group. The result is a very good album.
Stylistically it's in kind of an odd place. The more serious-minded, self-written approach means that the material is moodier, grittier, and sometimes more personal (eg House on the Hill, or John and Julie) than any prior Turtles record, but everything is still poppy enough that it's still very accessible, and never really discouraging or uncomfortable. It's also harder-edged than prior Turtles albums- it's more clearly Rock Music than the folk-rock or pop-rock of prior albums, with thudding bass and pulsing drums, though not really hard enough to be "hard rock," and too melodic and meticulously arranged (lots of horns and strings) to be straight rock and roll. I suspect there's a lot of White Album influence in here- another moody "back to basics" album that nonetheless has a lot of colorful stuff going on under its hood.
Ray Davies produced the album, at the special request of the Turtles. But the band had maybe outgrown him as an influence- they hated the first mix he did of the album, which was too "poppy" and overemphasized the orchestral parts, so the released album features a rough, rushed second mix that gives it a distinct character. The vocals are frequently mixed surprisingly low (eg House on the Hill, Bachelor Mother), and the bass and drums surprisingly high; everything has kind of a ragged, hollow sound to it. It works for the material, a happy accident, although I doubt it's what they were originally shooting for.
Unfortunately, the album lacked any obvious singles, and the group was too pigeonholed as a pop singles band to find success as an album band. Its underperformance contributed to the group's dissolution.
Overall a very solid record, and a decent place to leave the Turtles.
(The strict band-written-songs only rule means that the Turtles recorded, but did not release (at the time), the excellent Bonner/Gordon song Goodbye Surprise; it appears on some CD reissues of this album, including the most recent FloEdCo release. The post-Mothers Flo & Eddie (who were the Turtles in all but name, for legal reasons) would finally release the definitive version of the song on their first album.)
Stylistically it's in kind of an odd place. The more serious-minded, self-written approach means that the material is moodier, grittier, and sometimes more personal (eg House on the Hill, or John and Julie) than any prior Turtles record, but everything is still poppy enough that it's still very accessible, and never really discouraging or uncomfortable. It's also harder-edged than prior Turtles albums- it's more clearly Rock Music than the folk-rock or pop-rock of prior albums, with thudding bass and pulsing drums, though not really hard enough to be "hard rock," and too melodic and meticulously arranged (lots of horns and strings) to be straight rock and roll. I suspect there's a lot of White Album influence in here- another moody "back to basics" album that nonetheless has a lot of colorful stuff going on under its hood.
Ray Davies produced the album, at the special request of the Turtles. But the band had maybe outgrown him as an influence- they hated the first mix he did of the album, which was too "poppy" and overemphasized the orchestral parts, so the released album features a rough, rushed second mix that gives it a distinct character. The vocals are frequently mixed surprisingly low (eg House on the Hill, Bachelor Mother), and the bass and drums surprisingly high; everything has kind of a ragged, hollow sound to it. It works for the material, a happy accident, although I doubt it's what they were originally shooting for.
Unfortunately, the album lacked any obvious singles, and the group was too pigeonholed as a pop singles band to find success as an album band. Its underperformance contributed to the group's dissolution.
Overall a very solid record, and a decent place to leave the Turtles.
(The strict band-written-songs only rule means that the Turtles recorded, but did not release (at the time), the excellent Bonner/Gordon song Goodbye Surprise; it appears on some CD reissues of this album, including the most recent FloEdCo release. The post-Mothers Flo & Eddie (who were the Turtles in all but name, for legal reasons) would finally release the definitive version of the song on their first album.)
Published
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The Turtles drop all the shenanigans to put out a no frills, serious record. No joking around, just songwriting and playing to the best of their abilities. Now, I'm no huge fanboy of these guys, I think their best work is individual songs rather than whole albums but quite the contrary, this is an excellent record. From front to back, it impresses me wholly. Why their previous work is more well regarded is strange because as a full band statement, it doesn't get any better in their discography than Turtle Soup. Sadly, it was their last album before disintegrating in a slew of lawsuits. Better late than never, I guess.
Published
Re-issued under a different cover by Rhino Records in 1986, 'Turtle Soup' was The Turtles' last album, originally released in 1969 and produced by Ray Davies. The usual pop ingredients are found on this record's hit 'You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain', plus the Ray Davies touch on all of the other songs, which makes 'Turtle Soup' a magic potion with a British flavor!
Published
RFNLP 70157 Vinyl LP (1986)
I wish I liked this record more. In the City is great, but the rest of it leaves me unfulfilled.
Published
Produced by Ray Davies, fresh off the success of Village Green, Turtle Soup could have been great. What hurts the album most is loss of the excellent drumming of John Barbata. The point is made on the Happy Together DVD that John Seiter was nowhere near as good a drummer as John Barbata. Listen to Battle of the Bands and compare it Turtle Soup and you hear the drums go from great to adequate. The result is an album with great songs, wonderful vocal harmonies, and nice production but lacking the energy and power that Barbata brought to the mix.
The verse on "House on the Hill" is pure Kinks. The CD reissues both add the final single that the band actually wanted to release "Lady-O".
The verse on "House on the Hill" is pure Kinks. The CD reissues both add the final single that the band actually wanted to release "Lady-O".
Published
This album has given me years of joy, ever since I first had it on 8-track! "House on the Hill" is one of my all-time fav songs. The Turtles have always been underrated, and are one of those bands that always makes me feel better. I have no choice but be the first one to give this 5 stars.
Published
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Catalog
2 May 2024
2 May 2024
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A1
Come Over
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A2
House on the Hill
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A3
She Always Leaves Me Laughing
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A4
How You Loved Me
-
A5
Torn Between Temptations
-
A6
Love in the City
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B1
Bachelor Mother
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B2
John and Julie
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B3
Hot Little Hands
-
B4
Somewhere Friday Night
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B5
Dance This Dance
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B6
You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain
25 Apr 2024
16 Apr 2024
8 Apr 2024
29 Mar 2024
28 Mar 2024
22 Mar 2024
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A1
Come Over
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A2
House on the Hill
-
A3
She Always Leaves Me Laughing
-
A4
How You Loved Me
-
A5
Torn Between Temptations
-
A6
Love in the City
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B1
Bachelor Mother
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B2
John and Julie
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B3
Hot Little Hands
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B4
Somewhere Friday Night
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B5
Dance This Dance
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B6
You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain
21 Mar 2024
27 Feb 2024
24 Feb 2024
21 Feb 2024
31 Jan 2024
23 Jan 2024
14 Jan 2024
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