The Mirage - You Can't Be Serious (1965-69/2007)

It can be assumed that this 24 track compilation is unauthorized, as it bears no label name (although it does have the catalog number MR1), but it certainly does exist, popping up circa 2000 at very specialized shops. Even with such an extensive number of tracks, this does not have all of the songs from their seven singles; in fact, it has only nine of those 14 single sides. The rest consists of unreleased 1966-68 demos, acetates, and live BBC performances, as well as the 1969 single by the spin-off band Portobello Explosion. It's a fair but not stunning slice of period British pop/rock, on the cusp of turning from pop/rock of the Hollies/Beatles mold into light psychedelia. The comparisons are obvious -- too obvious at times. "You Can't Be Serious" can't fail to bring to mind "Nowhere Man" era Beatles with a dash of the Hollies, the demo of "Lazy Man" is a rip-off of "Rain" (although by the time it had been re-recorded for a 1967 single, it was rearranged so that the similarity was far more subtle). They also bravely tackled "Tomorrow Never Knows" for a 1966 single, and while that track has its novelty value as a cover of a Lennon-McCartney tune rarely done by other artists, its far more basic rock arrangement can in no way stand up to the brilliant psychedelic original. At other times they sound like a minor-league Hollies. The Mirage's strongest suit was probably those slightly spooky, almost churchy story songs, like "The Wedding of Ramona Blair" and "Poor Mrs. Buzby" (the latter from a 1967 unreleased acetate). The CDs sound quality is quite variable; the singles sound pretty good, but the unreleased stuff can be quite fuzzy. For all its imperfections, this is about as good as it's going to get if you want a full album's worth of goods by the band, as it's unlikely there will ever be a comprehensive above-board Mirage compilation, due both to cross-licensing complications and the very limited audience for such an item.