CREEM ONLINE: British Invasion

Animals
Retrospective
2004 ABKCO

Herman's Hermits
Retrospective
2004 ABKCO

Rolling Stones
Singles 1965-1967
2004 ABKCO

The good folks over at ABKCO sure are on a rockin' roll lately. The boss reissues coming out of their shop continue to astound both in the tastiness of the music and the quality of the packaging. The most recent releases from The Rolling Stones, the Animals and Herman's Hermits continue this tradition.

Of course, the most amazing thing lately is the second installment of the Rolling Stones singles box sets. Singles 1965-1967 follows the formula laid down in the box that covered the two years previous. Each of the 11 singles is packaged as a replica of the original 45 rpm record. The discs are even (to quote Mos Def) black on both sides. There's a 28-page booklet that gives some of the history and context.

Sure, the whole thing is fetishistic as hell. But if you have to have a fetish for something, this era of the Rolling Stones isn't a bad one to have. During this period, the band was branching out from its roadhouse blues roots and experimenting, adding elements of everything from Indian ragas, stoned psychedelia, courtly European classical, country twang and protest folk music to a sound that was increasingly singular.

There are balls-out rockers like "Get Off My Cloud" and "Let's Spend the Night Together." There are gentle gorgeous ballads like "As Tears Go By" and "Ruby Tuesday." The band's wry humor is shown on "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man." It's trippy side comes through on "She's a Rainbow." Trippy isn't the right word for "2,000 Light Years From Home" and "Paint it Black"—more like creepy. We all know the singles, but some of the B-sides are a bit more obscure (or, if not obscure, not played to death on what passes for AOR radio these days).

While not as plush a package, the single disc Animals Retrospective is the best collection of that group's output. The 22 tracks cover the original lineup's Mickie Most-produced hits as well as the psychedelic social commentary of the Tom Wilson-produced later lineup (which was billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals). The inclusion of "Spill the Wine," which was Burdon's big hit with War, is a little weird. It's not that that song isn't great. It just seems out of context. But that's a small complaint, really.

"You fellas are much cleaner than Jagger and his gang that were here last week"

Herman's Hermits have, to this listener, always seemed to be one of the weaker British Invasion groups. Herman's Hermits Retrospective does nothing to change that opinion. But that's not a dig on this package. If you for some reason need a Herman's Hermits collection, this one is certainly well done and collects all the songs you'd need. This disc is in the Super Audio CD format, as is the Animals compilation.

Now that ABKCO has done such a great job with the Brits, here's hoping that they'll soon turn their attention stateside to the amazing Cameo-Parkway material that's in their vaults.