Good Day Sunshine (The Singles A's & B's)

Fifty-one songs on two CDs by the post-Brian Poole quartet, and about as good a collection, at least for their U.K. output, as one is likely to find on this group, which is either highly underrated or a grotesquely lucky and long-lived middling ensemble of pop rockers. From the flowery pop/rock of "Good Day Sunshine" through the more self-consciously psychedelic "Let Your Hair Hang Down" and the catchy "Even the Bad Times Are Good," to their heavier recordings such as "Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham," and satirical ventures such as "Blue Suede Tie" -- the latter a cutting send-up of the then burgeoning glam-rock sound -- to their mid-1970s outings as the Trems, the group's history is documented with reasonable thoroughness. The relentlessly tuneful, singalong nature of the material can get to be tiresome in one sitting, like facing a plateful of cotton candy as the potential meal, but the group -- especially guitarist Rick West -- had a high degree of virtuosity in a pop vein, with West's abilities transcending that label, and their sound was always lively, making their stuff consistently entertaining in medium doses. The sound is state of the art and the contents go right up through "Words" and "I Will Return" from 1983, making this a very comprehensive collection, missing only some important album tracks and a handful of songs that were singles in America, a fact that may repel some stateside purchasers of this low-priced two-CD British import. ~ Bruce Eder|