This is a pleasant collection of what one might call off-brand British beat material --
Peter Nelson later achieved some success with
the Flower Pot Men and
White Plains; but as a frontman for a band in the early 1960s, he wasn't much more than a generic personality, lacking any distinction in either his own approach as a singer or the playing of the band behind him (which, at various times, included Mitch Mitchell and Vic Briggs, later of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Eric Burdon & the Animals). The stuff is eminently listenable and the Peter's Faces songs are even fun, but it's easy to see why they never made an impact on the charts -- despite some attractive playing, there are no hooks, and
Nelson's singing here isn't distinctive enough to make the songs or the recordings stand out. The CD will mostly interest British Invasion completists, and even mod enthusiasts should use caution -- the use of the word "faces" in the group's name derived more from colloquial slang than from any mod orientation in their music or attitude. ~ Bruce Eder