DESCRIPTION:
This 27-track CD is actually quite similar in content to the 1998 collection The Deram Anthology, but with a crucial difference. Unlike that previous release, this includes both sides of their first two singles (both done for the Piccadilly label before they moved to Deram); the only track it's missing from The Deram Anthology is a cover of "Misty." It thus replaces The Deram Anthology as the most comprehensive Timebox compilation, including both sides of all seven of their singles, as well as a good 13 tracks that were unreleased in the '60s (though all of those previously appeared on The Deram Anthology). The four Piccadilly cuts, unsurprisingly, are more oriented toward straight R&B-soul than their later work on Deram, including a blue-eyed soul number ("I'll Always Love You") and three instrumentals (among them a cover of Dizzy Gillespie's "Soul Sauce") with elements of soul, blues, Latin, and ska. The other recordings show them, like many late-'60s British bands with similar roots evolving from soul-R&B roots to more progressive sounds that, if not quite all-out psychedelic, certainly showed the influence of the psychedelic era. For all their reputation among audiences of the time and some collectors, none of this showed them making a leap to the fore as innovators in the way bands like, say, Procol Harum and Traffic with somewhat similar roots did. Their forte was heartfelt, wistful, blue-eyed soul-pop ballads; an attempt at Kinks-like whimsy ("Eddie McHenry") didn't work well, and their moves into harder rock-influenced directions weren't married to very memorable material. That makes Timebox a talented but marginal part of the late-'60s British rock scene, but certainly there's never going to be more thorough documentation of their recordings than this anthology.

Track Listings
1. I Wish I Could Jerk Like My Uncle Cyril
2. I'll Always Love You
3. Soul Sauce
4. Waiting for the End [#]
5. Save Your Love
6. Your Real Good Thing Is About to Come to an End [#]
7. Come on Up
8. A Woman That's Waiting
9. Beggin'
10. Walking Through the Streets of My Mind
11. Don't Make Promises
12. Girl, Don't Make Me Wait
13. Leave Me to Cry [#]
14. Gone Is the Sad Man
15. Eddie McHenry [#]
16. Barnabus Swain [#]
17. Baked Jam Roll in Your Eye
18. Poor Little Heartbreaker
19. Stay There [#]
20. Country Dan and City Lil [#]
21. Love the Girl [#]
22. Tree House [#]
23. You've Got the Chance
24. Black Dog [#]
25. Yellow Van
26. Promises [#]
27. Timebox [#]