Chesterfield Kings

In 1999, the Chesterfield Kings were still doing pretty much the same thing they were 15-20 years earlier: an album comprised mostly of covers of '60s garage classics, with a few originals in the same style. In fact, just four of the 17 tracks here are group compositions, the covers spanning nuggets relatively obscure (the Spiders' "Don't Blow Your Mind," the Electric Prunes' "Ain't It Hard"), hits (by the Syndicate Sound, Blues Magoos, and Hollies), and kinda cultish cuts (the Yardbirds' "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," the Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," the Standells' "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White"). By this time, it should be clear to everybody that the CKs are not innovators but popularizers of the form, just as some contemporary blues band would be popularizing B.B. King and Muddy Waters on a mostly covers disc, or a Scottish folk singer would be popularizing reels and jigs. It might seem strange to think of '60s garage rock as an authentic folk form, but keep in mind that the style's heyday passed more than 30 years before this album was made. It is, of course, not nearly as good as hearing a mixtape of the original versions, not only because the original versions are better, but also because here all of the material is delivered by one singer (Greg Prevost), which makes the experience much less varied. Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders co-wrote, and adds guest vocals to, the too-aptly-named "Where Do We Go from Here." ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi