The Small Faces - The Definitive Collection (1999)

Calling any collection of the Small Faces (or any other Immediate Records act) "definitive" at this late date is probably grounds for a fraud action -- there are simply so many different compilations, in so many varying states of remastering from supposedly improved sources, that it's become difficult to judge one over another. This double-CD set has some virtues, including its low price and generous content -- 36 songs that contain the entire Ogden's Nut Gone Flake album. The masters appear identical to (or, at least, not notably improved over) the CEDAR-ized tracks that appeared on Charly's 1995 four-CD box Small Faces: The Immediate Years, so if you own that, this is superfluous, except that it's got the most important stuff and it's easier to transport. There's no shortage of first-rate songs in this set, but -- and here's the rub -- the Small Faces catalog has been announced as being upgraded from previously unavailable master sources as of the middle and second half of 1999, so buyer be warned.~ Review by Bruce Eder