Having made their LP debut with half an album's worth of repackaged oldies,
the Sweet
then followed through with an entire disc of the things, drawing from both their own recent back catalog and that of songwriters
Nicky Chinn
and
Mike Chapman
, to create a record of almost unholy
pop
pleasure. For
were not the only arrow in the
Chinn
Chapman
quiver. They were scoring hits, too, with
New World
, with their
"Tom Tom Turnaround"
ranking among the most mawkishly compulsive songs in the duo's entire catalog. Passing it on to
to cover for their own LP didn't simply make sense from a commercial point of view. It was also the first step toward establishing
Chinnichap
as a songwriting brand name that would ultimately become as self-sufficient as any
Motown
,
Brill
, or
Kasenetz-Katz
coupling. Two recent
Sweet
singles,
"Funny Funny"
"Co Co,"
and three B-sides,
"Jeanie,"
"Spotlight,"
"Done Me Wrong Alright,"
do weight this supremely punningly titled set down a little -- add
and the average fan would probably have owned a full half of the record before even picking it up. It should also be acknowledged that the remainder of the record was in no way comparable with the quality of those other songs. A lackluster rendering of
"Daydream"
and the unappetizing American
soft rock
stylisms of
"Santa Monica Sunshine,"
"Reflections,"
"Honeysuckle Love,"
"Sunny Sleeps Late"
are all little more than bland filler. However,
"Chop Chop"
absolutely remedies the rest of the album's failings. Another
classic, it was originally recorded by singing DJ
Tony Blackburn
, with members of
themselves on backing vocals. It failed to take off, and
add little more to it than
Blackburn
had already tried to. But, in the company of those other hits, its original failure seems incredible -- as incredible, in fact, as
's own success. ~ Dave Thompson