Small Faces - Lazy Sunday

 

This German (I believe) comp has some more overlap with the other CD's I have already mentioned but it also has quite a number of different tracks that I didn't own, at least at the time of this purchase, so it is another fine collection of SF coolness!

This one opens with the goofy title cut, Steve's dig at his square neighbors who would give him a hard time about having fun on a "lazy Sunday afternoon", which ironically became a big hit despite being an admitted throwaway. "Collibosher" is a groovy, horn-laden, soulful instrumental, sounding a bit like some of the Odgen's material, "Just Passing" is also a bit whimsical with bike horns intertwined with Ronnie's melody in this quiet ballad but then we get a truly heavy raver in "Wham Bam Thank You Mam", a monster that could easily fit in with Steve's follow up combo, Humble Pie - certainly the beginning of hard-blues-rock! Absolutely great! Tim Hardin's "Red Balloon" follows, with more than a passing similarity to his "If I Were a Carpenter", which turns into a bit of a jam, which was unusual for this combo. 

"Here Comes the Nice" and "Itchycoo Park" make appearances here followed by another horn-augmented instrumental titled "Wide Eyed Girl on the Wall", then "I Can't Make It", a soul-stomper of Steve's, and "Autumn Stone" is a sweet'n'sensitive Marriott ballad - with flute! - and then we get the incredibly beautiful yet powerful love song "Afterglow" - truly one of their best! "The Universal" mixes numerous influences, from folk to country to Dixieland in this acoustic number recorded at Steve's home studio, complete with his dogs barking in the background! After that, there are more repeats - "Talk To You", "My Way of Giving", "I'm Only Dreaming" and "green Circles".

Of course, every one of these collections has their strong points and there are enough variation that I needed to buy them all, but this one is pretty freakin' strong, giving examples of pretty much all of their styles.