The Boots' first album consisted almost entirely of covers of recent British and American hits, and/or R&B-rock oldies done the British Invasion way. No record by a 1960s record so dependent on cover versions is going to be great unless your name is the Rolling Stones or the Yardbirds, but the Boots do bring enough of a weird spin to the material to make it more worthwhile than the average such LP. Their obvious inspiration is from bands such as the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds, though Them and the Pretty Things weigh in as perhaps their biggest influences. The awkward accent (all songs are in English) and the fractured, almost zany arrangements they bring to the songs make them over into something odder, as well as making them invariably gloomier than their prototypes. Though R&B-based tunes are the main diet here, some of the more memorable tracks are stylistic departures, like their spooky cover of the neglected Zombies 45 "Remember When I Loved Her" -- one would guess, the only cover of the song from the time -- and the eerie instrumental "Enchanted Sea," which strongly recalls the Tornados (of "Telstar" fame). The 1998 CD reissue adds four bonus tracks, including the 45 cuts "In the Midnight Hour" and "Watch Your Step," along with live covers of Them's "One More Time" and Billy Boy Arnold's "I Wish You Would" (obviously based on the Yardbirds' version). All but one of the tracks ("Baby Please Don't Go"), however, is available on the best single-CD Boots compilation, Smash...! Boom...! Bang...!.
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo