Ian & The Zodiacs - Wade In The Water: The Best Of Ian & The Zodiacs (1965-66) (2011)

Artist: Ian & The Zodiacs
Title Of Album: The Best Of
Year Of Release: 1965-66/2011
Label (Catalog#) : RPM [Retro 892]
Country:: UK
Genre: Pop Rock, Rock & Roll, Beat
Quality: FLAC (tracks + cue,log,scans)
Time: 01:06:42
Full Size: 458mb(+3%)

AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder
No one is likely ever to sort out the true "best" of Ian & the Zodiacs, never mind their overall history: they were on too many labels, and never sold enough records to justify the effort as anything other than a labor of love. But based on the evidence of this 26-song CD, there was a good deal to love there. All of what's here is very solid American pop/soul done Merseybeat-style, complete with the occasional blowing sax (sharing the spotlight with fuzztone guitar) and horns. To be sure, they were never a cutting-edge outfit like the Beatles or the Hollies, or even an ambitious pop/rock outfit like the Merseybeats the nature of the material here speaks to that, American soul and Brit-beat pop/rock that was already a bit retro when it was done in 1966 (at around the same time that the Beatles were having fun at the expense of the British soul boom -- and also expanding the meaning of the word "soul" -- with the title of the Rubber Soul album). Ian & the Zodiacs were a talented but hard-luck Liverpool act that never got past peripheral status; their members fed into bands such as Kingsize Taylor & the Dominoes and the Fourmost, but the Zodiacs missed out on success at home and in the States (even as their single of "The Crying Game" charted in Texas), while making a career mostly in Germany between 1963 and 1967. The quartet, led by singer/guitarist Ian Edwards (1943-2007), recorded across four years during the mid-'60s, and the 26 tracks here, all drawn from a flurry of album and single activity in which they engaged in 1966, is a fair -- if not exactly comprehensive -- cross-section of their work. There's no real order to the material, which is fine. Opening with their majestic rendition of "Wade in the Water," the disc spends the next hour bouncing between Motown and Stax covers, rival contemporary pop (including a cover of George Harrison's "I Need You") and the Jagger-Richards obscurity "So Much in Love with You." Some of their better songs seem to brush up stylistically against the early Zombies and the Roulettes. A lot of the music, including "Clarabella" and "Wade in the Water," is done with a beguilingly easygoing charm that allows it to work, despite lacking the kind of excitement that one would get from the same repertory out of, say, Philip Goodhand-Tait & the Stormsville Shakers. There's nothing to dislike and a lot to enjoy on this CD -- the sound is excellent and the annotation is very thorough -- and having heard it, one wouldn't mind a volume two showing up someday.

Tracks:
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01. Wade In The Water (1966)
02. As You Used To Do (1966)
03. Going To A Go-Go (1966)
04. Why Can't It Be Me (1966)
05. Any Day Now (1966)
06. Headin' Back To You (1966)
07. Baby, I Need Your Loving (1965)
08. This Won't Happen To Me (1966)
09. What Kind Of Fool (1966)
10. No Money, No Honey (1966)
11. Respect (1966)
12. Na-Na-Na-Na-Na (1966)
13. Take A Message To Martha (1965)
14. Ride Your Pony (1966)
15. Clarabella (1965)
16. Come On Along, Girl (1966)
17. The 'In' Crowd (1966)
18. It's A Crying Shame (1966)
19. Can't Stop Running Away (1966)
20. This Empty Place (1965)
21. I Need You (1966)
22. Leave It To Me (1966)
23. The Crying Game (1965)
24. No, Not Another Night (1966)
25. So Much In Love With You (1965)
26. Where Were You (1966)

All thanks to original releaser