"Albatross") is a 1969 collection dominated by the eight songs on the band's first four British singles, with some extras added in. The fact that it stands up right alongside the two "proper" albums they'd released at the time is a testament to the British blues-rockers' consistent firepower during that period. In terms of the straight blues that were mostly the band's stock in trade at the time, frontmen Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer take admirable command of Little Willie John's slow burner "Need Your Love So Bad" and Elmore James' "The Sun Is Shining." But original material like the serpentine, Otis Rush–on-a-bad-trip "Black Magic Woman" (soon to become a hit for Santana) and the luxurious, decidedly non-blues instrumental "Albatross" (the inspiration for The Beatles' "Sun King") hints at how far beyond blues basics the band would travel on subsequent albums. Alternate takes that find Green chewing out his bandmates amid a flurry of false starts add a refreshing air of fallibility.