Final Daze (The Attack)

It's not all that easy to figure out, even with the detailed 16-page booklet, which has only sketchy recording dates. But this consists of unreleased 1967-1968 material by this minor British mod-psychedelic band, taken from guitarist John Du Cann's personal collection of acetates. It can't be considered the definitive Attack compilation, as it has nothing from the band's four 1967-1968 Decca singles (most of those tracks have shown up on various-artists compilations). It's fair, but no more than fair, British mod-psychedelia, catching the very beginning of the moment when U.K. psych started to head in a consciously heavy direction. Two of the cuts, "Freedom for You" and "Feel Like Flying," would have been the fifth Attack single had the band not been dropped by Decca, and "Freedom for You" is certainly one of the best things the Attack recorded, with a breathless, hard pop tempo and pretty good minor-key harmonies. For the most part it's pretty standard period British pop-psychedelic, with some of the more serious and louder numbers indicating that the group members might have been pretty intense Cream fans. Occasionally, as on "Magic in the Air," there's that fruity, childlike British whimsy characteristic of many pop-psych hybrids from that short but intense period of British pop. Half of this material showed up as bonus tracks on the CD reissue of the album by Five Day Week Straw People, which also featured John Du Cann. However, the remaining eight tracks (including alternate versions of a couple of numbers that had been released on the Five Day Week Straw People disc) are previously unreleased, although they're somewhat more marginal in worth.