Search - Various Artists :: Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond

Far Out Collection

thedevilscoachman | Vienna, Virginia | 08/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't get where some of the last few critics are coming from. Yes, sadly some of the members of the bands featured on this album ossified into prog-rockers come the '70's -- just like some some punk generation musicians ossified into lounge singers, fake rockabillies, world-music twerps or pop acts. So what? It doesn't take an iota of energy away from the music they and their cohorts played when they were young. The great songs here are too many to list, but include the incredibly catchy and riffy "Sorry" by the Easybeats; a maximum R'n'B "I'll Keep Holding On" by the well-named Action; the incredibly produced and jubilantly trippy "My White Bicycle" by Tomorrow; the aggressive "Making Time" by the Creation; the too-wonderful-for-words "My Friend Jack" by the Smoke (just check out that opening guitar!); "How is the Air Up There?" by the La De Da's, who out-Stone the Stones; and "Social End Product" by the Bluestars - proto-punk if I've ever heard it. And these are just the English-speaking groups: "Your Body Not Your Soul", "I'm Just a Mops", "Break it All" and "Get Down from the Tree" are performed by groups from the Netherlands, Japan, Ecuador and Spain, if I'm not mistaken - not countries generally known for rock - until now, maybe. Most of the songs on here remind me of punk - generally, everything is fast, loud, furious and clearly made by kids looking for rules to break, and you can just about picture these bands sweating out their songs in garages. Its great, essential music - I got it two months ago, and I'm still absorbing it, like a great book or complex movie. Its not a perfect collection - for example, I don't like a good chunk of disk 2 - and the pricetag is high, no doubt. Nevertheless, you're not going to find most of this stuff anywhere else, and this colletion is worth the price because there are a lot of new sounds to enjoy here, even if the music is more than thirty years old. Highly, highly recommended."

Another great success from Rhino

Stephen Raiteri | Beavercreek, OH United States | 09/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Once again, as they did with the first Nuggets Box and the first Doo Wop Box, the good folks at Rhino Records have produced a collection that is simply the finest of its type. In every way -- sound quality, liner notes, packaging, song selection, and sheer volume -- this box, like those others, shows evidence of great care and leaves most other similar collections in the dust. The selection here is more wide-ranging than on the first Nuggets box, both geographically and in terms of style. The first box had a lot of fairly-well known songs; here we get just a handful of favorites and classics ("My White Bicycle", "I Can Hear the Grass Grow", "Friday on My Mind", "Pictures of Matchstick Men") along with a lot of great recordings that even dedicated listeners may not be familiar with. (I've been listening to music of this ilk for years, and I had heard less than half of these songs.) I was particularly delighted with the inclusion of "Reflections of Charles Brown" (a song I had been wanting to hear for years -- and also, incidentally, proof that not everything here is fast and loud); "No Presents for Me" (a personal favorite); and Love Sculpture's "In the Land of the Few" (an excellent song, a true lost gem, here presented in an extended version from the one I'd heard before -- what a treat!). Plus, I've made lots of new favorites, and gained a greater appreciation of some songs I knew before after hearing them in this context and with this quality. Folks expecting this to sound like the first Nuggets box set might be a bit disappointed: while some of the non-British groups do have an American-garage-band-type sound (like the La De Das from New Zealand and Los Chijuas from Mexico), and we do get some of the hard-edged British R&B that helped inspire American garage bands ("I Can Only Give You Everything", "Rosalyn"), a lot of the songs here show more evidence of self-conscious craft and studio experimentation. This collection mostly leaves out Merseybeat (unless it comes from Uruguay -- Go Shakers!!), the more "twee" side of British psychedelia, and the tamer side of British R&B, in favor of edgier freakbeat and more experimental, psychedelic stuff, along with straight-ahead British pop-rock (the Mockingbirds' excellent "You Stole My Love") and lots of great examples of the rock scenes from outside the U.S. and U.K. (my favorites include the aforementioned Shakers, Japan's Mops, Holland's Q65, and "You Can Be My Baby" by Denmark's Red Squares). I must single out the liner notes for particular praise -- they are absolutely excellent. Alec Palao's introductory essay is insightful and incisive, Mike Stax's track-by-track notes are full of great info, and the whole booklet makes for great reading. Of course a few of my personal favorites didn't make the cut, like Rupert's People's "Dream in My Mind", the Curiosity Shoppe's "Baby I Need You", "Things She Says" by the In Crowd, and "Grey" by the Hush -- and I wish they had included the Mockingbirds' anti-conformity anthem "One By One" instead of the lesser "How to Find a Lover". There are about six misses here, in my opinion (for instance, I'm sorry, but I just don't like John's Children much). That's a couple more than the first Nuggets box had, I think -- but that still leaves over 100 excellent choices. Overall, I think any fan of '60s British rock, or anyone interested in non-U.S., non-U.K. '60s rock who picks this up will consider it money very well spent. I'm hoping for at least one more Nuggets box (please?). If the folks at Rhino are concerned about "scraping the bottom of the barrel", perhaps they could make it half U.S. and half the rest of the world, to spread around the (very minimal) risk. (One more note, to '60s anthology compilers: I have maybe 18 collections along the lines of this one, and "Circles" by Les Fleur De Lys is on no less than six of them. Yes, it's good, and it definitely belongs here -- but now, enough, already!)"

Nuggets Nuggets, Sweet Golden Buggets!

Julie Prescott | UK | 07/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My name is ..., and I grew up in London in the 1960's. My boyfriend was a member of a band called Get Rich Quick. They only made one little record, but when I played this box set, it brought back wonderful memories. I would go every week to see the bands that played in and around London, and my favorites were the Birds and Small Faces. The records are great, but you couldn't believe how great they were to see live! Anyhow, this is spose to be a review not my life story, so on with my opinions. It is my opinion the music represented by this box set to be the best music ever made by any one at any time. Only an idiot wouldn't like this music. These big, fat sloppy hippy bands ruined everything for cool groups like the Birds and Creation. Why on earth do people like boring music like James Taylor and Jim Croce...and the worst, Don McClean. Do you know how much I wanted to vomit when Madona did a remake of American Pie? Well, if your feelings are hurt by these opinions, you dont deserve this box set. You are some loser square witha shape like a pear with some bloke like a bear sitting by your chair you silly beanie babie. I guess the best stuff besides the Birds and Small Faces are Thor's Hammer. These guys remind me of my boyfriends group. They really are over the top. But get this records and tell them Swingin little ... a groovy mod girl told ya it was ducky. Toodles!"