The Small Faces (Remastered)

Album Review

This CD and the accompanying 1996 reissue of From the Beginning make collecting the Small Faces' Decca sides complicated, containing as it does many tracks that are not on the anthology double disc. The new remastering has turned this into a must-own disc for anyone who enjoys the early Rolling Stones or, especially, the early Who, and wants to hear a British Invasion band as good as they were that never quite made it in the U.S., and which could have crossed swords with any garage band you care to name and carried the day. In those days, Steve Marriott had an even more soulful voice than Mick Jagger or Roger Daltrey; the main influences on the group were Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, and he was pretty formidable on guitar as well. The songs all have that really cool crunchy sound on the early Who records, except the sound is a little fuller and the tempos are better conceived, and there's even a pretty impressive bit of feedback throughout. The French EP tracks that comprise this disc's bonus songs are all distinctly different from the standard cuts, generally much rawer — like real American-style garage band stuff — including a feedback-laden opening to a completely different take of "What'cha Gonna Do About It" and totally different versions of "Shake" and "E Too D." The sound on these cuts isn't quite up to the original album's 12 established tracks, as master tapes were impossible to find, but they — and the improved sound of the rest — make this a must-own CD, even more than The Decca Anthology.