The Mindbenders - A Groovy Kind Of Love: The Complete LP's & Singles 1966-1968 (Reissue) (2010)

The Mindbenders in their post-Wayne Fontana configuration were a hot little British pub trio specializing in a kind of jazzy rock similar in a lot of ways to the Zombies or Traffic, and they amount to one of the great lost groups of the 1960s. Although they had two strong songwriters in Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman (together they would go on to form one half of 10cc), the Mindbenders were also one hell of a cover band, and their recorded legacy is surprisingly diverse because of it. This two-disc, 37-track set, which collects the two LPs, six EPs, and ten singles the group released between 1966 and 1968, is a revelation in that regard -- it includes imaginatively done garage soul covers of “Shotgun,” “Mystery Train,” and “The Seventh Son” alongside the pipe dream psychedelia of “Yellow Brick Road” and the hazy sunshine pop of “A Groovy Kind of Love,” and as a flip side, the lustful B-movie feel of “Schoolgirl,” which appears here in two versions, of which the original single version is best. It’s an impressively wide palette, and the Mindbenders were clearly more -- way more -- than just Wayne Fontana's backup band for a time -- they’re a wonderful buried treasure, and this delightful collection does a great job of showing why.