Most of the contents of
Super Lungs: The Complete Studio Recordings -- most especially the albums Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid and Terry Reid -- will be familiar to the singer's fans, and may dissuade people from picking up this double-CD set. That would be a shame, however, in view of the other material that is here -- starting with his work with Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers, which opens disc one and dates from well before his solo debut,
Reid reveals himself as an extraordinarily (jaw-droppingly good, in fact) soul singer, with range, power, charisma, and taste, even on those early sides, and the package is extended into genuinely uncharted territory with a half-dozen newly discovered, newly mixed outtakes from Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid, and two tracks from
Reid's first recording session in 1966, "Funny How Time Slips Away" (which is almost worth the price of the double-CD set by itself) and "I'll Take Good Care of You." The sound quality is spot-on perfect, state of the art, the annotation by Peter Doggett is entertaining and informative, and the whole package is some of the best British-spawned soul and R&B that one can find. ~ Bruce Eder