Come See Me: The Very Best of the Pretty Things is a lovingly packaged, mostly well-chosen collection of one of the best bands of the British Invasion that never quite managed to invade. Their lack of success in the States was certainly not due to a lack of great songs. The songs taken from the group's first three albums on Fontana bear this out. The stomping "Rosalyn," the mad take on Bo Diddley's "Roadrunner," the shuddering "Don't Bring Me Down," "Midnight to Six Man," and the snarling folk-rocker "You Don't Believe Me" ...
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Come See Me: The Very Best of the Pretty Things is a lovingly packaged, mostly well-chosen collection of one of the best bands of the British Invasion that never quite managed to invade. Their lack of success in the States was certainly not due to a lack of great songs. The songs taken from the group's first three albums on Fontana bear this out. The stomping "Rosalyn," the mad take on Bo Diddley's "Roadrunner," the shuddering "Don't Bring Me Down," "Midnight to Six Man," and the snarling folk-rocker "You Don't Believe Me" are all beat group classics, revered by garage revivalists and lovers of tough R&B-influenced rock. The Pretty Things were tougher than the Stones, probably tougher than anyone in the U.K. In fact, stack up the murderously rough and tumble "Come See Me" or "Get the Picture" against any band that ever thought it was tough and you'll have a real fight on your hands. By its third album the group was showing signs of expanding its musical horizon. The string-laden pysch-pop ballad "The Sun" and acoustic guitar-based big pop tune "Death of a Socialite" bear this out. The collection gathers four songs from their post-Fontana period, which may be the creative high point of the group. "Deflecting Grey," "Walking Through My Dreams," "Talking About the Good Times," and "Mr. Evasion" all fully embrace the sonic possibilities of psychedelia without sacrificing any of the band's aggressiveness or ability to write big hooks. The collection sort of rushes through the rest of the band's career, only picking two songs (and not the strongest) from their excellent concept record S.F. Sorrow, one from their surprisingly solid hard rock album from 1970, Parachute, and two from their fairly dire 1974 effort Silk Torpedo, including the very Spinal Tap-ish "Singapore Silk Torpedo." Having songs from their hard rock period is not as bad an idea as some garage rock purists might imagine. The main problem is that the songs are poorly chosen. It would have been nice to include one or two songs the band recorded as Electric Banana in the late '60s. In fact Shout! Factory should look into a legit re-release of those recordings because they are some of the best work the band did. Still, this is the best Pretty Things collection of the CD era, and if it does anything to bring the Pretty Things to a wider audience, it has done well. Anyone who wants to know what the band was all about will be thoroughly educated and will most likely come away with a new favorite British Invasion band. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi
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