Go Back: The Crabby Appleton Anthology

Crabby Appleton released precisely two albums--an eponymous debut and its 1971 sequel Rotten to the Core--so GrapeFruits 2023 compilation Go Back: The Crabby Appleton Anthology isnt heavy on unreleased material. Mainly, the set offers mono single mixes as bonus tracks but there are a couple of other notable additions to the Crabby Appleton canon. Crabby Appleton, the debut, contains a couple of brief interstitials originally released on the 8-track but cut from the LP, then theres the single "Grab On," a funky, organ-driven rocker which leader Michael Fennelly calls "probably the best thing we put down on tape." Otherwise, Go Back showcases the two Crabby Appleton LPs, records that remain redolent of their era but in an appealing fashion. At times, it seems that the quintet is determined to attempt every style that could bring them to either the FM or AM airwaves at the dawn of the 1970s--fuzzy hard-rockers are tempered by sunbleached country-rock, there are nearly as many boogies as ballads--but Fennellys songs are often sharp melodically and conceptually, while the rest of the band can execute each of these styles with flair. The high tension of "Go Back" remains the peak but Crabby Appleton is the rare one-hit-wonder of the early 1970s whose back catalog does not disappoint. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine