This Castle package features the best of
Chicken Shack's Deram years, when they kept some of the trademark blues expression that made them somewhat popular in the British blues scene of the 1960s, while getting decidedly heavier to the point of being a power metal trio. The entire
Imagination Lady album is presented here, along with eight of the 14 cuts form Unlucky Boy. As a bonus, there is a second disc that contains
Chicken Shack's unreleased Goodbye album, which was cut live. Those who worshiped the early band -- and there are people who did since they were in their way as credible as the
Peter Green and
Jeremy Spencer-led
Fleetwood Mac (and even had
Christine Perfect as a member for a time before she left and married
the Mac's bassist,
John McVie) -- will, as those of the day did, find this material tedious and plodding. However, those who have found solace in the hard rock of the early '70s will find this material not only gratifying but surprising in its way, given the mastery of the material and the big, loud, and raw mixes. Recommended. ~ Thom Jurek