The Animals

It's amazing the amount of attention being paid to Eric Burdon & The Animals' catalog in Europe since the year 2000, considering that a big chunk of that catalog wasn't even released intact there when the band was alive and kicking. Repertoire Records' remastering of Winds of Change not only offers the original album in sparkling sound, but adds a quartet of bonus tracks, two of them absolutely priceless. The LP itself was a pretty powerful, albeit somewhat self-consciously profound psychedelic statement that had some brilliant playing and several great vocal performances by Burdon -- it holds up far better than a lot of other British psychedelic music of the era, the band turning in playing that's never less than interesting and rises to exciting a good chunk of the time. The state of the art sound is a dream, and the accompanying booklet, with annotation by Chris Welch and more photos (and good photos, at that) of this band than had previously been seen, is worth a big chunk of the premium price. But the bonus tracks are the real treat, and they raise the value of this album a good notch up -- the mono single versions of "Good Times" and "San Franciscan Nights" have their virtues, including a close, punchy sound that gives Burdon's singing a special intimacy and poignancy. But the other two cuts are pure gold -- the hard-rocking "Ain't That So" is as close as this band ever got in the studio to playing basic, three-chord garage punk, with a snarl and a sneer that could make this song pass for a really, REALLY good single by The Seeds or The Chocolate Watchband, and an angular guitar break that shows what Vic Briggs and John Weider could do when they got down to business on their basic instruments, making this almost worth the price of the CD by itself. And then there's "Gratefully Dead," which sounds more like the Jimi Hendrix Experience than the Experience did, a pair of crunchy guitars chiming and grinding away in twisting lead and rhythm lines with nice, lean bass support from Danny McCulloch, and Barry Jenkins does Mitch Mitchell-style drumming better than Mitchell himself could do, while Burdon shouts his lungs raw. It's pure psychedelia, evoking the era about as finely as any piece of music of the era and, coupled with "Ain't That So," makes this CD an essential purchase for any fan of the band or the era's music. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide