Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
by Small Faces

This is such an underrated album. Sure, it didn’t break the mold like Sgt Peppers or Are You Experienced, but it combined the best parts of those kind of musical revolutions at the time and perfected it. So what if the concept doesn’t hold up, the music still does. Steve Marriott is also the best rock singer ever....just gotta lay that fact down. (Edited)

The Deluxe edition of Small Faces' classic 1968 album "Ogden's Not Gone Flake" is first of all a scoop because of the new remastered sound. Both the mono and the stereo versions sound great.

CD 2 is a collection of alternate/early takes and a few outtakes; most of it fine stuff, but also slightly disappointing, considering that recordings and that would logical inclusions on the album are missing. For example the single version of Mad John, Wham Bam Thank You Mam and the single mix of "Afterglow". I also think it would have been great to have the songs released without the Stan Unwin narrative.

A Small Faces boxset with previously unreleased rarities is according to some sources on the web in preparation, so one can still hope to get to hear Ogden's Nut Gone Flake without Stan Unwin. Granted, Unwin's story has a lot of charm, and it is clearly a big part of this album's character, but his narrative, in some cases over the music, may easily appear tedious and annoying.

"Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" was the album that really established Small Faces as a band that wished to and should be taken seriously. Sadly the band had split up within a year of the album's release. A lot can be (and has been) said about the round tobacco box, I'll stick to giving a few comments about the music.

The original two album sides were more or less two sections, where side one was a regular album, with outstandings songs like "Afterglow", "Song of a Baker" and "Lazy Sunday" - the three other tracks are just good.

Side two is the experimental and ambitious side where the songs are tied together with a strange narration by comedian Stan Unwin. It's a fairytale story about Happiness Stan who goes looking for the other half of the moon.

The songs are all great melodic tunes, with quite an impressive variation in style and instrumentation - several of them sung by bassist Ronnie Lane. (Edited)

From ButterThumbz TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/30/2012 21:02 | #56308 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

A wonderfully schizophrenic blend of rock, soul and Cockney knees-ups by a band at the peak of its psychedelic powers. I may get blasted for this but I don't think Unwin's contributions have weathered quite so well. (Edited)

From Cymro2011 10/31/2013 17:25 | #89947 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is the single most english album in existence. (Edited)

A tale of two sides that are extremely different but both have high and low points. For side 1 the group seem to just completely let go and seem to be trying to just make the best songs they can possibly conjure up that make the most noise. They open on an absolutely beautiful song in the title track that leads perfectly into Afterglow (Of Your Love) which is just phenomenal and made me keep revisiting this album time and time again. The rest of the songs follow this style to a varying degree of success until you get to track 7. Side 1 is far more accessible and I connected with it straight away but with side 2 and the start of Happiness Stan I was so confused and I hated it on my first few listens. The narration, strange instrumentation and concept was just lost on me. I was drawn back a lot by side 1 and after around 5 or 6 listens it just seemed to click and I started to love that second side. It began with me copying Stanley Unwin's narration and joining in with his Unwinese which made me appreciate the craziness that is so much fun to get lost in and just let go of all your troubles while you listen. The whole record really does feel like an experience, or a journey, that is much easier to appreciate if listened to on vinyl as that short break as you flip the record over makes it so much easier to understand the two opposing sides. Furthermore, the flow of the album is simply amazing. It is more prevalent on side 2 but it all just connects together so beautifully. Overall, an album I never seem to get tired of and it is one that always makes me get lost in the music and forget about everything else. (Edited)