Searing guitar, horns, a funky groove and a lot of fuzzy noise in the background are the best of things here as we kick things off with a remix of Tommy’s ‘Shake the Devil’ the title track of this new dig into the archives. Releasing only two albums (the outtakes from the latter ‘Private Eyes’ make up this recording) before his untimely death it appears that the ‘lost recordings’ are almost the last of what isn’t already out there. So as a fan how does this compilation rate? Well it’s not bad but its not perfect either.
Case in point that wonderful opener sounds very like the original, as does ‘Bustin’ Out For Rosey’ which follows – now I’m sure fans will appreciate the subtleties but to these ears there’s little to set those (which incidentally are tow of teh best here) apart,
Elsewhere it really is a mixed bag. There’s a nice stringless outtake of ‘Hello Again’ – a song that really underlines the promise Bolin had that sadly was cut short too soon. The outtake of ‘Gypsy Soul’ is interesting and a little ‘loungy’ (as are the other two takes especially the acoustic demo), and I don’t mind the alternate take on ‘Sweet Burgundy.’
The real interest however comes in things like the Instrumental demos (for there are two) of ‘Someday Will bring Our Love Home’ which open your eyes to the original whilst the instrumental of ‘You Told Me That You Love Me’ that follows is one probably best left ‘lost’! Sadly on occasion the lo-fi tape hiss does get disappointing and these days you’d think a little more could have been done without materially altering things too much.
If you’re a fan this is of course a must have. If you’re a casual yet to take a dip I suggest some of the superior compilations first.
7/10