Small Faces

These four albums capture The Small Faces during their short initial lifetime between 1965 and 1969. At the height of the swinging sixties their music captures the mood, or should we say mod, so well, that is easy even now to understand why they were so revered at the time. The years have been good to The Small Faces, with musical history showing they had an influence on many bands and artists over the years and even today.

All the albums have been re-mastered and carry both the mono and stereo versions of the albums, plus related non-album singles and alternate versions, many of which are previously unreleased or released for the first time on CD. For those uninitiated, the first three albums are pretty straight forward sixties English rock and roll. It is music that could not have been recorded anywhere else.

Small Faces (1966) (**) is unsurprisingly the weakest of the four albums and contains the classic pop song Sha La La La Le, but there is little to distinguish them from the crowd at this stage. But even within just twelve months there are signs on From the Beginning (1967) (***) of career progression as Steve Marriot’s voice begins to find its feet. That Man and You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me point towards the psychadelia that was to come later, as does parts of the crisper Small Faces (1967) (***).

Of most interest to fans and critics now though is 1968’s Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (****), (which hear comes with three discs to explore) an extraordinary record that not could only be recorded in England, it could only have been recorded at the turn of the sixties and seventies! It recently featured as a 6 Music classic album, and rightly so. It’s a curve ball for anyone only familiar with the likes of Itchycoo Park. The A side (the first six tracks) varies from soul-tinged work to standard rock closing with the terrific Lazy Sunday (check out just how much Blur owe to this song!).

The ‘B’ side is where the fun starts, as legendary sixties comedian Stanley Unwin narrates a fairytale amidst the music. The plot features a quest for the missing half of the moon (“Stan can sit and watch the moon” begins Happiness Stan). While not quite Pink Floyd in the concept album stakes it is a fabulous adventure and shows how recording technology improved in the short time from their first album.

Obviously there is far more here than just the albums, with rare photos and memorabilia, as well as new interviews with the surviving members of the Small Faces, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones. This is a fabulous place to delve into the different recording techniques of the time too, just like it was with the Beatles Anthology. While not as revealing perhaps, or significant, as those albums, this collection does capture a band that ended up being hugely influential.