Various Artists - Great British Psychedelic Trip Vol. 3

All Music Guide

While the first two CDs in this series cover more obscure recordings of the psychedelic era, this volume, drawn from the vaults of EMI, includes some better-remembered artists, such as the (Jimmy Page-era) Yardbirds, the Pretty Things (here with songs from their seminal concept album S.F. Sorrow), and Tomorrow. Also on hand are future stars Dave Edmunds in Love Sculpture and Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. The collection includes some first-rate examples of British psychedelia -- such as Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle," and July's "Friendly Man," and "We Are the Moles" (by, of course, the Moles) -- but also reaches a bit forward to a time when the music became heavier and less far out, hence the Gods' hard-hitting "Real Love Guaranteed" and Love Sculpture's storming hyperdrive version of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." (Love Sculpture's other entry here, "In the Land of the Few," is an overlooked gem.) There are also some not-very-psychedelic pop sounds, in the Kippington Lodge tracks (which ...are the weakest things here) and Lemon Tree's "It's So Nice to Come Home." Keith West's orchestrated magnum opus "Excerpt From 'A Teenage Opera'" can't be called psychedelic either, but it and most everything here has an engaging period feel and expansive spirit. The only track that really doesn't seem to belong is David Bowie's "You've Got a Habit of Leaving," a "freakbeat" single recorded in 1965 (two years before anything else on the collection) when he was still using his original name, Davy Jones. Altogether, an enjoyable journey. - Stephen Raiteri, All Music Guide Read more Less