In For A Penny: Raves And Faves

The American Shout! Factory has released a follow-up album to ”Get Yer Boots On: The Best Of Slade” from 2004. This new album ”In For A Penny: Raves And Faves” is supposed to cover the cream of lower-charting hits, b-sides and album-only cuts. A noble quest, but a very messy result!
The track list is odd, to say the least, including a few “minor” hits, at the same time leaving out others, more striking. The pick of b-sides is equally strange, leaving out most of the a-side quality tracks and as for the album-only cuts… You can’t help wondering what the heck this is about, as the tracks seem to make no sense no matter if the wish is to cater for an American audience or show the versatility of the band. I guess the track list must be based on the favourites of Dan Epstein and Derek Dressler, who have produced the compilation. That’s the only way I can think of to explain this odd selection of songs.
Anyway, the tracks themselves are good and the packaging okay. The CD comes with a 12 pages booklet including pretty precise track-by-track comments and a few photos, even one that I hadn’t seen before!