The Troggs Albums (6)
'Athens, Georgia & Beyond'
Release Date 1/1/1996
Tracks 18
Label Music Club
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What The Critics Say
Most comeback albums never work; Athens Andover is the rare exception that does. Backed by members of R.E.M. and the dB's, The Troggs make some of their best pop ever, full of ringing guitars and chiming melodies. [Athens Andover was reissued in 1996 by the Music Club label as Athens, Georgia & Beyond with additional tracks.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Live at Max's Kansas City'
Release Date 1/1/1981
Tracks 12
Label MKC
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What The Critics Say
The 12 tracks that make up the Troggs' Live at Max's Kansas City show the band in great underground form. This is actually the best environment for Reg Presley and his ensemble to tape a performance -- and Peter Crowley's production makes for a very enjoyable listening experience. "Got Love If You Want It" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" rip. The mellow "Love Is All Around" makes its transition from pop radio classic to a club fave a dozen or so years later. "Give It to Me" is passionate and grungy, with Paul Wycliffe's engineering a bit more in control than Bridget Polk's cassette player capturing the Velvet Underground. There's no date of recording, or even band lineup on the album jacket, just a 1979-1980 copyright on the disc itself. There's a solid rendition of Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog," with far more punk than Aerosmith or the Rolling Stones would muster on each of their debut LPs. The guitar is sizzling, and who cares that he misses the cue as Presley is concluding the tune? It is a loose set at a New York bar, and it is authentic. Chuck Berry's "Memphis and "No Particular Place to Go" get the Troggs treatment, and it's a far cry from Johnny Rivers' chart debut. "Wild Thing" comes off as the garage rock classic that it is; in fact, this rendition bares the soul of the song, yielding all the reasons that punks and new wavers revere both it and the Troggs. "Gonna Make You" is a home run, and it shows why Reg Presley rules as The King at small venues around the world like Max's Kansas City. An excellent document of an important group. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
'The Trogg Tapes'
Release Date 1/1/1976
Tracks 11
Label Private Stock
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What The Critics Say
Don't mistake the title of this album, The Trogg Tapes, for that 12-minute talking studio digression New Rose Records released (with no track listing) on The Troggs on 45's EP. Perhaps cashing in on that fun debacle's underground buzz, the band releases 11 tracks that are pure Troggs. With singer Reg Presley and late drummer Ronnie Bond on board, original producer/manager Larry Page puts together an exciting 1976 album which has a simple raw sound, perfect for the new wave. As Larry Uttal's Private Stock label couldn't do much with Blondie, this innovative disc went nowhere as well and the shame of it is that there's some great rock & roll in these grooves. Bassist Tony Murray and co-guitarist Colin Fletcher come up with a decent pop ballad in "After the Rain," while Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog" is so primitive that it is too bad the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith didn't get to hear it before they tracked the tune for their respective debut albums. The snarling guitars of Fletcher and Richard Moore create a wonderful platform for Reg Presley's distinctive grunts and growls. Sure, Marc Bolan was the visionary that Reg Presley is not, but with the Troggs having three Top 30 hits to Bolan's one in America, and with quality underground stuff like this, the band should have been able to do more than issue discs for a cult following. Producer Larry Page and guitarist Colin Fletcher come up with a great track in "Gonna Make You," while sea effects on "I'll Buy You an Island," courtesy of the English Channel, is the cool, earthy stuff that made the Troggs such an important fringe band. The back of the LP has a tape box à la the Velvet Underground's Peel Slowly and See, while the front has the group sitting in a mini-mountain of unspooled recording tape. Drummer Ronnie Bond is no longer with us, but he gets to sing the vocal on "Rolling Stone," one of two titles he co-writes with Tony Murray. There are only two Reg Presley originals here, but his attitude is everywhere, from the punk of "Rock 'N' Roll Lady" to the fine leadoff track "Get You Tonight." Had Private Stock saturated college radio with a collector's-item disc, say a colored vinyl 45 of "Get You Tonight," this excellent artifact would have had a fighting chance. It doesn't have the angst or abandon of the Sex Pistols'Never Mind the Bullocks nor does it have the pretension of some of the Clash's material; it's a consistent recording of a band doing what they do very well, and on that level it works just fine. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Hip Hip Hooray is actually a retitled and slightly resequenced reissue of the Troggs' 1968 U.K. album Mixed Bag (which never came out in the United States), tacking on 11 CD bonus cuts from 1970 and 1973 singles. The original title Mixed Bag was an appropriate description of this rather scrapheap assembly, as it wasn't really a regular album. Instead, it was a budget-priced compilation matching eight songs that appeared on British and American singles in 1968 with four others that made their first appearance on the LP. Although all but one of the tracks was a Troggs original ("Hip Hip Hooray" being the lone exception), and although there were a few solid cuts, overall it was disappointing due to the weakness and surprisingly low energy of many of the songs. "Hip Hip Hooray" was somewhat puerile bubblegum, and "Little Girl," a small British hit, was a lame attempt by Reg Presley to keep milking the pop ballad style he'd used the much better effect in earlier hits like "Love Is All Around." In brighter news, the old salacious Troggs sound surfaced to good effect in "Say Darlin'"; "You Can Cry if You Want To" was one of Presley's better soft numbers; and both "Purple Shades" and "Maybe the Madman" were two of the band's best ventures into psychedelia, albeit of the rather tongue-in-cheek sort. All of the best numbers, however, were the ones most likely to show up on later best-of compilations, making Hip Hip Hooray only of interest to collectors and completists. Repertoire certainly does such collectors a service, however, by adding a pile of rare 1970 and 1973 singles onto the disc, as well as three tracks from Reg Presley solo singles of the era. Alas, none of the bonus cuts are too good or memorable (the heavy "Feels Like a Woman" is the most well known), documenting a period when the band's original force and raunch were getting diluted amid a clutch of substandard material. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Built around their second (and last) big American hit, Love Is All Around was a very good collection of tracks that had, for the most part, already appeared on singles, including "I Can't Control Myself," "Any Way That You Want Me," "66-5-4-3-2-1," "Night of the Long Grass," "Give It to Me," and "Girl in Black." Every one of the 11 tracks, however, appears on the Archeology collection. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
