Atomic Rooster - Resurection (2001)

The classic early incarnations of Atomic Rooster have never had a fair crack of the compilation whip, with the lion's share of CD collections concentrating either on the band's later years or the unreleased archive nestling in John du Cann's closets. Resurrection, however, blows all complaints out of the water with a three-CD box that not only rounds up the band's first three albums -- that is, Atomic Rooster, Death Walks Behind You, and In Hearing of Atomic Rooster -- but also tacks on a bountiful crop of bonus tracks, drawing upon both demos and live material to present virtually another album's worth of rarities. The most crucial of these are appended to the debut album. The 1971 B-side "Play the Game" deserved at least as much attention as its hit flip, "Tomorrow Night," while a couple of Carl Palmer-era demos catch the band trying out songs that would not appear until after he quit the band. Both "VUG" and "Devil's Answer," of course, rank among Atomic Rooster's best-loved tracks, and the opportunity to hear them in such a radically formative form is itself worth the price of admission. Of course, "Devil's Answer" reappears elsewhere as well, in both its own hit single incarnation and, closing out In Hearing of Atomic Rooster, wrapping up a five-song live set that makes its own loud case for a full-length Rooster live album. The package is completed by a well-illustrated 24-page booklet that offers a full-band history, lyrics, and a complete discography that cuts through a lot of the chaos surrounding the band's latter-day output. The end result is a box that, even if you own the original albums, is an essential acquisition.