Themes for Young Lovers

Percy Faith and His Orchestra

If the transcendent trilling of Slim Whitman can cause the outsized brains of Martian invaders to explode, then this is surely the extravagantly intimate music which summoned them to earth in the first place. In an era of unrestrained chaos and violence, Themes for Young Lovers could be an act of utopian might and courage -- an icy bubble bath at the foot of a cataclysmic pyre. In the late summer of 2008, however, this fascinating mode calls to mind the intestinal soundtrack of a sated vampire biker in full leathers, picking his teeth by the campfire, chuckling with Fred Neil about fork oil and Yukio Mishima.