The Time Bubble Book 6

Bennett, whose recorded legacy has been gathered in a 76-disc boxed set titled The Compete Collection, has been doing that for over 60 years: saving our souls with the greatest songs ever written. The Complete box is an absolute necessity, first because it contains several previously unreleased albums, like On the Glory Road and From This Moment On, a live concert taped in Las Vegas that collectors have been salivating over since 1964.

The 13th Floor Elevators were one of the pioneering bands of American psychedelic rock, and their small but visionary body of work has won them a devoted following, but they've had a hard time earning the respect and historical notice they've deserved. There are many reasons for this, but the often-shoddy treatment of their recorded legacy doubtless has a great deal to do with it…

The Manfreds – which is to say, the reunited Manfred lineup sans Manfred Mann himself – have been performing to enthusiastic audiences in Europe since the 1990s, and 5-4-3-2-1 is a studio document of their sound, which is very close to their original sound, only a bit slicker. Paul Jones and Mike d'Abo split the vocal chores between them, each picking up his own repertory, and Mike Vickers, Mike Hugg, and Tom McGuinness from the original band are here, with Benny Gallagher (bass, guitar, vocals) and Rob Townsend (drums) filling out the line-up. D'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags" is also represented, but, surprisingly, not Jones' "High Time." The sound is excellent and the group does try to add some modern inflections to some of the songs, but one suspects that they were more of an improvisatory group than this back in their prime years./quote]