The best-loved of the original
Pink Fairies
' three
Polydor
albums is also, contrarily, the lesser of them all. Recorded in 1972 at a time when the band's own reputation as hippie hell-raisers was already being eclipsed by the soaring
Hawkwind
,
What a Bunch of Sweeties
found the band realigning themselves with the twisted
Americana rock
sensibilities of the latter-day
MC5
, high on
noise
but, sadly, low on the blistering commitment that was the hallmark of their debut album. The loss of founding member
Twink
may or may not have contributed further to the collapse, although there is no denying that, in full
instrumental
overdrive, the three-piece (plus guests) incarnation of the group was at least as dramatic as its predecessor. Indeed, a nine-minute assault on
the Ventures
'
"Walk Don't Run"
rates among the finest
recordings of all time, while the bonus inclusion of an even longer version lends this reissue even greater gravitas. There's also a hot version of
the Beatles
"I Saw Her Standing There,"
the twisted
country
opus
"Pigs of Uranus,"
and, rounding off the bonus tracks, a grimy reinvention of
Don Nix
's
"Goin' Down."
Elsewhere, however,
founders on too many weak ideas drawn for far too long and too much reliance on churning
rock
jam riffs that could have been peeled off by any half-competent festival bill-filler of the era -- a status that
the Pink Fairies
should never have been reduced to. ~ Dave Thompson