More late-eighties rawk, the otherwise obscure Charlotte hail from the west coast of America and this compilation brings together recordings from 1988-1992 with some more recent knob-tweaking by producer Mike Wolf.

Vocalist Eric Ganz is actually quite good, not dissimilar to the late great Michael Hutchence on the opener 'Medusa Groove'. In fact you can't knock the band's musicality, Nick DiBacco and Vinnie Cacciotti supply appropriate guitar fireworks, and there's even sax on 'Ocean of Love and Mercy.' Probably through a combination of bad luck, management, karma - or whatever - they lost out to those bands who packed a bigger punch.

And those bands include Dokken and Winger, with 'Woman Behind The Eyes' suggesting the former and 'Siren' and 'All Tied Up' the latter.

Elsewhere, though, 'Miss Necrophilia' is more straight-ahead rock n roll evoking prime time Great White and 'Invisible Man' funks thing up to ring the changes.

If the band are testing the water for a fully-fledged reunion with this release, they should need no more encouraging.

****

Review by David Randall