GREATEST HITS

An interesting compilation, but one would wonder whether it's the compilation or the entire band's catalogue messed up. We have a few proto-symph tunes ("America, "Hang On To A Dream", "Rondo"), a few psych pieces ("The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack", "Diamond Hard Blue Apples Of The Moon", two concerto excerpts (a bit boring, frankly) and "The Cry Of Eugene" which is something in between the first two.

The jazzy side of the band is missing here, but however this is a good presentation of band diversity (or mess). Some tracks are yawnjerkeres, some artistic and elaborated, some catchy and poppish. The performances are, of course, great, the vocal horrible. Messy compilation for a messy band. It's nobody's fault.

Released in 1977 by NEMS records, this was one of many compilations of Nice material available partially due to the fact that whomever held the rights to the material to the defunct Immediate label was leasing them out to every budget record company in existence. As the compilations go this is probably the one on the LP format and represents what the Nice were the best at, producing psychedelic classically inspired rock.

I give this compilation only three stars not because of the value of the music, but the sound quality. While the original Immediate masters were not much to begin with, for some reason this whole compilation is a bit muddy and was mastered running slightly slow (although if you were unfamiliar with this band you would never know it unless you had perfect pitch). Go for one of the newer Castle Music collections which usually compiles their whole Immediate catalog complete, although if you want to get one for the turntable and this one is cheap enough, it's not the worst place to start.