ReviewWhen I bought the vinyl edition of this album at the end of the 1980s, all I knew of SAC was "Incense And Peppermints", which I remembered hearing as a kid, and then got to know better years later via one of the Cruisin' series albums. Big Beat had done a great job of putting together this compilation, (even if "Birdman Of Alkatrash" sounded a little out of place amongst the other gently psychedelic cuts). I played the LP a lot for years as it fitted in nicely with other albums of its kind (Bam Caruso's 'Rubble' series, and other reissues on Edsel and Big Beat). After a while though I developed a taste for the harder-edged psych and prog music that I'd discovered along the way, so I traded Strawberries Mean Love (along with some similar reissues) in for something else.
Fast forward a few decades, and I had a desire to hear this again so got the CD version - with extra tracks too! - even better, I thought. Except that, well, it isn't. Out of the eight bonus tracks, there are only two ("Paxton's Back Street Carnival" and "Hummin' Happy") that match up to the quality of the material on the original comp, and to my ears the rest actually spoil it as there's nothing very comparable. They're fairly unnecessary additions and just don't have the same great atmosphere that the others do. I would have gladly traded the eight (actually six if you put aside the two I just mentioned) for the addition of "Unwind With The Clock" and / or "Pass Time With SAC" from the band's first album as they are far more in keeping with the style and the vibe of the rest of the original Strawberries Mean Love collection. The six bonuses (A's and B's) don't add a thing to the first thirteen tracks, and in this case less really is more: this 'more' is just too MOR.