At a glance it might be assumed that this is the definitive
Nightcrawlers
retrospective; after all, it has 24 tracks, by a band that only did a few singles and an album. It does contain everything from their sole LP (also called
The Little Black Egg
, from 1967) and a few non-LP singles and unreleased cuts. However, there are curious imperfections that prevent this from being a definitive retrospective. The B-side of their first 45,
"Marie,"
isn't here, and more problematically, their 1967 single
"My Butterfly"
/
"Today I'm Happy"
is not included, either. Nor does it include the two singles by spin-off band
Conlon & the Crawlers
. Yes, the back sleeve does note that this has "all the recordings by the original band," which presumably means there was a deliberate decision to exclude all material that did not feature that lineup. The problem is,
-- an incredibly accurate early
Who
imitation complete with high harmonies, ringing guitar, and airplane take-off instrumental breaks -- is their best song other than
"The Little Black Egg."
Both sides of the
single, and both sides of both
singles, were included on the
Eva
LP compilation
, which had much poorer sound and barely any liner notes (the
Big Bea
t compilation, on the other hand, has a copious group history). The optimum approach would have been to add the 1967
Kapp
single and the
singles in place of the handful of previously unreleased British Invasion/R&B covers that conclude the
Big Beat
CD. As it is, neither the
nor the
anthologies represent the group's output to collectors' utmost satisfaction, although comments in the liner notes to the
compilation propose that the missing material is not worthy of comparison to what's heard on this disc. As for what is here, it's mostly pretty thin and forgettable, though periodically engaging, moody garage-folk-rock. ~ Richie Unterberger