Mixed, but clearly their best
David Goodwin | Westchester, NY United States | 08/29/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First things first...the tracklisting/picture above are currently wrong...they seem to be accidentally copied from Amazon's entry for the Spiders No1/No2. Hopefully, this'll be fixed soon.The Spiders were simultaneously one of the longest-lasting GS (Group Sounds=Japanese rock from the 60s...not quite garage, due to the poppiness of lots of it, but not quite mainstream either) bands and one of the most maddeningly inconsistent. Some of their stuff is great, but it comes in spurts...from the first album on, there're some tracks on their albums that're good, some that're cheesy, and some that're bad.This album, however, *almost* bucks that trend, as even the novelty numbers here aren't that bad, and there're some absolutely standout tracks. Additionally, this is the first Spiders album that actually sounds like an album; there's even a little (albeit strange) running theme, in that each track has a piano "intro" that sounds like it's played off of a scratchy acetate. Odd. The first two songs, for example, are amoung the best in the Spiders' large catalogue; the first is a jerky, oddly synchopated bit of horn-laded freakbeat, while the second is a Tempters-calibre ballad. From there on, though, it gets more uneven, but even the jauntier tracks keep the quality level high. Of course, though, the mid-album highlight of the fantastically-unusual "Mr. Tax" (a slight rip-off of Taxman in theme and riff, but an entirely different experience otherwise) cannot be denied, and I love the less-clunky remake of "Lonely Man," which is a definate upgrade from the version that appeared on No. 4.A nice feature of the Spiders catalogue on Teichiku is that, despite their low (for Japanese CDs, anyway) price, they're immaculately packaged, and stuffed with bonus tracks from other albums. Unfortunately, the bonus tracks here are almost universally awful, and most are merely mediocre covers of current pop standards (Whiter Shade of Pale, for example). Unfortunate, but I won't count it against the actual album. Also, Teichiku's remastering leaves a bit to be desired, as they're overly fond of no-noise; as a result, the album has a very strange sound to it.In summary, if you're going to buy a Spiders album, this is definately a good choice. I'd advise getting some sort of compilation first, though, to test the waters."
