Sixties psychedelia

This 2-disc set showcases the early psychedelic Status Quo before they reinvented themselves as a boogie rock band with the single Paper Plane in about 1973.

It contains a number of gems like the divine Pictures Of Matchstick Men with its swirling guitars, Ice In The Sun, Black Veils Of Melancholy, Down The Dustpipe and In My Chair, all tuneful numbers with impressive arrangements.

Other songs like Price Of Love and When My Mind Is Not Live are less memorable though still listenable, including
Paradise Flats with its spoken section and their interpretation of Are You Growing Tired Of My Love.

Disc 2 contains a nice enough version of Spicks And Specks plus various rarities, covers and alternative versions of the hits on the first disc. It's a pity that some of their other covers of sixties hits have been omitted, such as Sheila and Green Tambourine, as these were interesting at least.

This music is very different from the direction they took for the next three decades, but as sixties psychedelic pop-rock it stands up well. I give it four stars for the aforementioned classics.

Status Quo - 'Singles Collection 1966-73' (Castle Music)

To be honest,I was just a tad let down after getting a copy of this 2-CD release.Probably my OWN fault because I had expected to much.Price was good,though.Don't get me wrong,it's still a decent retrospect of the band.Disc one has the band's singles from 1966 to 1973.I notice that tracks like "Pictures Of Matchstick Men","Ice In The Sun","Technicolour Dreams" and "Paradise Flats" appear to be written around one riff.Which is a good thing for a '60's psychedelic band.Trouble is about halfway through disc one,the songs grow kind of stale.Disc two,however has many unreleased tunes from the two pre-Quo bands the members were in,The Spectres and Traffic Jam.Actually,disc two MAY be better than disc one.Out of a total of 49 songs,I'd say about 30 of them are between decent to really good.Would make a nice gift for some who is a Status Quo fan.