Begin

About Begin

Begin is the sole studio album released by the American music group The Millennium released in July 1968 on Columbia Records. The group first appeared after members from various Los Angeles pop groups such as The Ballroom, Sagittarius and The Music Machine decided to collaborate on an album. Along with adapting previously recorded material, the band began recording and writing the music of Begin in early 1968 at Columbia Studios. Begin was the second album to use sixteen-track recording technology following Simon & Garfunkel's album Bookends. The group wrote songs in a style later described as sunshine pop, a style noted for its influence of psychedelia with rich harmony vocals and lush orchestrations. Due to the album's complex recordings and long studio time, it became the most expensive studio album recorded by 1968. The album received critical acclaim on its release but did not sell well failing to chart in the United States and the United Kingdom leading the group to abandon a follow-up album which they had already recorded songs for. As pop music of the 1960s was re-evaluated by newer generation of critics, Begin continued to receive positive reviews after the album was re-issued in the 1990s with AllMusic finding it to be a "bona fide lost classic" and that it was on the same level as "more widely popular albums from the era" and Pitchfork declaring it "probably the single greatest 60s pop record produced in L. A. outside of The Beach Boys. more »