In Memoriam [Remastered, Vinyl Replica]

In Memoriam was a rather hastily conceived ten-song LP issued by Immediate Records in the wake of the group's breakup in early 1969 -- slapped together from a quintet of live tracks recorded at Newcastle Town Hall and five odd single B-sides and cuts from what would have been the group's next album. Actually, it wasn't a bad collection, as far as any ten songs could go, and side one was worth its weight in gold, capturing the band's rather awesome live sound for the first time -- hearing Steve Marriott (maybe England's second-greatest soul shouter after Chris Farlowe) with a decent repertoire with almost any competent accompaniment on-stage was a profound experience, and this band was his best, and those five sides (which have been reissued many times since) were taped on a particularly good night. The studio tracks on side two were almost inevitably less impressive, but even here, "Call It Something Nice" was an interesting mod-blues hybrid, "Red Balloon" a pleasantly spaced-out acoustic ballad, and "Wide Eyed Girl on the Wall" a single that should have been -- it only needed words. Meanwhile, "The Autumn Stone" was a strange psychedelic love song, languidly romantic with a stripped-down texture recalling Syd Barrett's solo work. All in all, this wasn't the worst farewell release the Small Faces could have had, but apparently they objected sufficiently so that Immediate quickly deleted this album and folded its contents into the double LP The Autumn Stone. ~ Bruce Eder|