Spirit

Mojo Presents...An Introduction to Spirit, sponsored by Great Britain's Mojo magazine, is a single-disc CD-length compilation drawn from Spirit's 1968-1970 recordings for Ode and Epic Records. Since the band was more of an albums than a singles act (it scored only one Top 40 hit, "I Got a Line On You"), there is bound to be some disagreement about what constitutes its best material. Certain tracks would make most fans' lists, among them "Fresh Garbage," "Uncle Jack," "Mechanical World," and "Taurus" from the first album, Spirit; "I Got a Line On You" from the second album, The Family That Plays Together; "Dark Eyed Woman" from the third album, Clear; and "Nature's Way," "Animal Zoo," and "Mr. Skin" from the fourth album, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus; as well as the one-off single "1984." All of those tracks are included here, though sometimes in surprising order. It seems strange, if the compilers were going to use the first five songs on Spirit, that they wouldn't sequence them in the same order that they appear on that album, as fans are used to hearing them that way. Beyond this, the Spirit enthusiast is likely to second-guess songs that have been included and songs that have been left off. Relatively minor efforts such as "Jewish" and "Give a Life, Take a Life" seem like curious choices when obvious titles like "Prelude - Nothin' to Hide" and "Morning Will Come" are missing. As a result, Mojo Presents... seems something less than the best possible one-disc condensation of the band's early recordings. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide