The Easybeats

A better title for this 58-minute, 20-song CD might have been The Best of the Easybeats 1967-1969. Like virtually all of the compilations of this band's work (with the notable exception of Absolute Anthology), Repertoire Records' best-of ignores the group's 1965 and early-1966 Australian sides and their early hits in that country in favor of distilling down the group's work beginning with "Friday on My Mind." That might be the work that is best known to most listeners outside of Australia, but it also gives a skewed perspective of the group's work -- similar to if someone started a Beatles best-of with "Penny Lane." Neophytes might think from this that the Easybeats started out as a psychedelic rock outfit, when they actually made some punchy British Invasion-style music for a couple of years. In fairness, the sound here is excellent, and the choice of songs is good within the confines of the disc -- one just wishes that some of the more forced "good-time" music was supplemented with a few of those early rockers, perhaps in place of a couple of the later, serious songs. The annotation, surprisingly, is minimal, without even the inclusion of release dates or histories on the individual songs. [Repertoire's 2006 edition included a bonus track.] ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide