of the late1960s – exemplified by the Zombies' 1968 album Odessey and Oracle, Love's 1967 album Forever Changes and the music of the Left Banke – a trend critic Greg Kot terms "orchestral guitar-pop". The Smithsonian Institution's book on the history of music groups the album with the pop-rock of the 1960s and the genre's trend towards cohesive albums rather than collections of popular singles. Musicologist Stan Hawkins describes the album's sound as generally "flowery, tranquil and dreamy", influenced equally by music hall and American rock and roll, and author Patricia Gordon Sullivan writes that many of its songs further the music hall overtones first established the previous year on Something Else. Ray instead subsequently characterised the album as departure from the band's previous music, terming its songs "rock/folk tunes". Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter magazine similarly writes that the album's generally acoustic approach and simple production made it more readily described as "melodic folk/pop" than as rock music. Lyrics and concept In contemporary interviews, Ray explained that the songs on Village Green are "all related in a way", and Dave suggested that the album is "about a town and the people that have lived there", where "the village green is the focal point of the whole thing". The tracks often serve as portraits of the village's inhabitants or as a description of local attractions or activities; character studies include "Johnny Thunder", "Monica" and "Do You Remember Walter", about a biker, a prostitute and a lost friend, respectively. Other songs display an interest in memory and its relationship with photographs, such as "Picture Book", "People Take Pictures of Each Other", the unreleased song "Pictures in the Sand" and "Village Green", where the value of the community consists in being photographed by American tourists. In a May1969 interview, Ray stated that the album expressed his love of "traditional British things" and his hope that they would persist. He added: While the songs on Village Green vary in their adherence to the village concept, the album displays a consistent preoccupation with the past. Academics Robert Polito and Carey Fleiner write that while some listeners regard the album as an indulgence in nostalgia, its songs often instead rebuff those who constantly reminisce on the past. Gentle sentiments about the past are often directly contrasted against a general cynicism or rude voicing. Like Polito, academic Barbara Carroll writes that its songs yearn for refuge