Search - The Small Faces :: The Singles As & Bs

Great Sampler of Great Mod Band

Randall E. Adams | Los Angeles, CA United States | 02/15/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you decided that you only wanted to have one CD by the Small Faces, this would be a fine choice. Although their "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" is a very famous and successful concept album, the Small Faces were at their best as a singles band. Tracks like "I Got Mine" and "All or Nothing" could be successfully covered again and again by modern grunge or hard rock bands. And the b-sides were often just as good. This collection takes them from their original Mod hard rock sound to their flower power psychedelic period and winds up with the two sides of their final commercially unsuccessful single "Universal." By the time of this last record, their egos had inflated out of all proportion while their creative juices had been largely exhausted. Hence a top side to a single that probably should have been relegated to middle of an LP. It's failure was a surprise only to its author (Marriott). The speed of this band's evolution is positively dizzying, but that was the 1960s in the U.K.. This collection takes the listener on a fine journey through a vibrant period where candles burned very brightly very briefly."