Double Sight. The Complete Recordings [compilation]

Featuring young teenage prodigy Jimmy McCulloch (later of Thunderclap Newman, Stone the Crows, and Wings) on guitar, One in a Million's 1967 single 'Double Sight'/'Fredereek Hernando' was one of the very greatest obscure British psychedelic singles. Both sides are included on this CD, along with both tracks from their previous, far less impressive single and seven previously unreleased cuts. 'Double Sight' was simply one of the greatest Who circa-1966-1967 soundalike songs ever, and while 'Fredereek Hernando' went in a somewhat different direction with its monkish harmonies and crunching freakbeat, it was almost as good. While it's something of a cliche for pet collector bands like these to be unable to match their one capture of lightning in a bottle in the rest of their repertoire, that is, alas, true of One in a Million. Though taken altogether this material could have comprised an actual LP back in the late '60s, it just doesn't sound like the band was ready for that honor. The remainder of the group's output was pretty average mod rock with occasional psychedelic spice, and sometimes quite derivative of the Who (though 'Something on Your Mind' sounds like a Troggs outtake). The sound is disappointingly thin at times, and the previously unissued 'No Smokes,' apparently intended as a 1967 single, is an annoyingly tuneless, agonizingly sung ode to nicotine withdrawal. No band that came up with something as killer as 'Double Sight' can be written off, but other than that song and its flipside, this is for freakbeat/U.K. psychedelic completists.