The duo's two albums are assembled together on one CD, and appended with singles that weren't on either, all in glittering sound (it took till the mid-'90s, at least, for proper sources to be assembled on the Immediate Records catalog). The first six tracks, representing single A- and B-sides, have a fair amount of appeal today as artifacts of '60s pop/rock, with "Step Out of Line," an original by the duo, probably representing their own sound best, kind of between
Simon & Garfunkel and Peter & Gordon, and closer to the latter. The album cuts are a more difficult fit, ranging from Broadway tunes to covers of
Beatles and other songs -- though if these guys were to have covered any
Beatles tracks, the right ones were chosen in "Help!" and "We Can Work It Out," and the harmony versions of the
Small Faces songs are an interesting variant on the latter, even if they won't displace
the Small Faces' own renditions. There are also good covers of
Phil Spector material ("Is That What I Get for Loving You Baby?") and rock classics like "Do You Wanna Dance," but their very best efforts were, in many ways, the duo's own songs, and filmmaker
Peter Whitehead seems to have had the best instincts when he lifted their "Night Time Girl" from the first album for use in his documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London. Fans of
Vashti Bunyan may also want to pick this CD up for the presence of "The Coldest Night of the Year," as the folksinging legend appeared with the duo, fully credited, on the record. ~ Bruce Eder