Begin (The Millennium album)
| Begin | ||||
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| Studio album by The Millennium | ||||
| Released | July 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 1968 | |||
| Studio | Columbia Studios | |||
| Genre | Sunshine pop | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Curt Boettcher, Keith Olsen | |||
| The Millennium chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Begin | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Begin is the sole studio album released by the American music group the Millennium released on July 1968 on Columbia records. The group first appeared after from various Los Angeles pop groups such as The Ballroom, Sagittarius and The Music Machine 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 albums 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."
Following the release of Eternity's Children's debut album, Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen began a new project that included members of The Ballroom and Sagittarius called The Millennium. Sandy Salisbury would later explain that "After the Ballroom disbanded, I got discouraged. I left music for a spell. But not writing. I got myself a sound-on-sound recorder and made my own demos. I recorded these late into the night in my rented North Hollywood house." before he was invited to record as part of the group with Boettcher. Unlike Sagittarius, The Millenium was described as "the original vision" of Boettcher. Mike Fennelly of the group stated that a "We were very enthusiastic about the creativity that was indeed at a high level for the initial writing, demo and master recording."
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