Search - Mungo Jerry :: Very Best of

Disappointing

David L Hutchins | Mesa, AZ | 06/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"If you know Mungo Jerry, as I did, from the two most popular songs (In the Summertime and Lady Rose) and you are expecting more of the same on this album, you'll be disappointed. Unlike those two upbeat, catchy pop songs, the remainder of this album is what I would call hard rock. Too noisy and loud for me. The 9-minute long "I Just Want to Make Love to You" is almost painful to listen to; it includes a lot of what I would call "screetching". San Francisco Bay Blues is not bad and "You Don't Have to Be in the Army to Fight in the War" isn't bad either. The remainder of the songs are just too hard rock for me. Some of the songs are just weird, such as "Baby Let's Play House". It almost seems that the band couldn't quite figure out what they wanted to sound like and did some experimenting, hoping something would work. A few things did; most things didn't. I am probably being overly generous giving 3 stars, but there are a few good songs and some interesting sounds here. Not what I was expecting. It is sometimes hard to believe the same band is playing all these songs because of the difference mixing of styles. The band should have focused on one type of song; instead they jump all over the map with mostly stuff that is not memorable and not that good. If this is the very best of Mungo Jerry, I would hate to hear the worst!!!"

SUPRISING!....

wally gator | USA | 01/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was told that I had to check out Mungo Jerry not to long ago and I decided to give it a whirl. I was only aware of the obvious hit IN THE SUMMERTIME, as I think that it must have been the only single ever released in the U.S.

That tune is very well known, and always established the band as a rag tag type of music... like an old time western saloon type of gimmick. What I discovered was that these guys had some downright rockin' songs, that recieve very little attention. Songs like BABY JUMP and WILD LOVE are awesome, and sound nothing like the Mungo Jerry that I ever heard before. The singer goes down low on the vocals, and almost rasps out the bars... "she's a cat, she's a kitten..." and so forth.

The dude below me says that he didn't like the fact that it was too rockin', but I think it was great. I was very pleasantly suprised with the sound of this disc. LADY ROSE has sort of an early T. Rex glammed up sound, and sounds closer to the familiar sound that I knew of before, but there are gems all over this one, like a nine minute cover of I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU, crazy. I can't believe the change in styles, but it actually works.

This is packaged like a cheap collection of a band that never had any real hits, but there is a lot of heaviness behind it, and showed me Mungo Jerry in a whole new light. An awesome find."