The Honeycombs - All Systems Go! (Expanded) (1965/2020)

Despite downwardly spiraling commercial fortunes, the Honeycombs recorded a second album in 1965 that featured as many intriguing production flourishes and oddball British pop songs as their first effort. No hits were included on this LP and be warned that the version of their minor hit single "I Can't Stop" (probably their best song) featured here is an inferior, drastically slower remake. This album also includes a mighty obscure ballad by Ray Davies, "Emptiness," that was never recorded by the Kinks (or any other artist but the Honeycombs, for that matter). It's not much of a song, but it's a find for Kinks fanatics. The record's highlights are the sparkling guitars of "Love in Tokyo" and the soulful ballad "Something I Got to Tell You" (featuring drummer Honey Lantree on vocals), which sounds like an honest-to-god hit-that-never-was. The CD reissue of the album adds six non-LP cuts from 1965-1966 singles. The best of these are the tense, overwrought ballad "Should a Man Cry?" and the up-tempo "Can't Get Through to You," on which producer Joe Meek took his vari-speed vocals and neurotic rhythms to their farthest extremes.