The Best Of

The highlights from their 1970s singles (including the hits "Mouldy Old Dough," "Desperate Dan," and "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen") are on this 18-track compilation, as well as some cuts from albums, and a couple of previously unreleased songs. Certainly this is too much of a silly booze-up to endure at once. You pretty much get the idea from a few tracks here and there. But as kind of a goofy 1970s counterpart to Joe Meek's unfathomably weird productions of the prior decade, it has its value, novelty, and otherwise. Given how much hipper and more popular vintage, off-kilter kitsch has become in the States since 1990 or so, it's rather surprising no one has picked up on this lot in the U.S.; perhaps it seems too obvious to champion a band that had a number one British single as a remarkable discovery. As far as moments that stand out, it's interesting how the wordless high female vocals on "Spangles" sound so eerily similar to the high female backup parts on classic 1960s Kinks records like "Death of a Clown."