THE HARVEST YEARS

The Harvest Years was EMI's response to the success of BJH's Polydor studio album Welcome To The Show the previous year. The band recorded four albums and a few singles for EMI's progressive label in the early 1970s and this compilation contains the bulk of the album tracks, including all of the obvious choices, some but not all of the early singles and three previously unreleased gems from 1968. These latter - Pools Of Blue, Eden Unobtainable and I Can't Go On Without You - were acquired as acetates by a fan from the old Harvest label boss, and passed to the Abbey road engineers who 'cleaned' them ready for this album.

Even today, this double CD is a nice little package that neatly encapsulates the band's early years. Inevitably, fans might rue the omission of a much loved song, but on the whole it is a good selection, well sequenced and satisfactorily packaged. It would make a good introduction to the band and an excellent compilation for the car, but all of these tracks, including the rarities and singles, are now included on one or other of the remastered studio albums which rather makes this collection redundant.