Wooden Head in Bloomington, MN

In 1970, both
White Whale Records
and
the Turtles
, their biggest act, were on the verge of collapse. This assortment of unreleased odds and ends from their early years was hastily assembled as a posthumous collection, although several of the tracks hadn't been properly finished. Surprisingly, it survives as one of their stronger albums, focusing almost exclusively on their early pop/folk-rock sound. Arguably, it's better than either of their first two official LPs, perhaps because they weren't able to sweeten the tracks with superfluous overdubs. Besides several strong originals, it features interesting compositions by
P.F. Sloan
,
David Gates
, and
Peter & Gordon
. The album, confusingly, has been reissued at various points by
Rhino
Repertoire
Sundazed
, all with different bonus tracks. The
configuration, which adds the nice folk-rocker "Is It Any Wonder?" and the odd, mordant, psychedelic-tinged 1966 flop single "Grim Reaper of Love," is a bit preferable to the
one. ~ Richie Unterberger