Hot on the heels of the reissue of their second and third albums comes the eagerly anticipated appearance of the Critters' debut LP from 1966, with a slew of bonus cuts on the side. If you're a fan of The Beach Boys or The Lovin' Spoonful, you'll love this talented New Jersey quintet of harmony poppers!
In those heady, pre-American Idol days, the route to success had many paths. For New Jersey’s Critters, the path was local, with the band making a name for itself in the tree-lined suburbs of Westfield, Scotch Plains and Princeton, gigging at high schools, colleges, and Knights of Columbus halls. Though they were proficient at covering the days' hits, The Critters also boasted some formidable songwriters at a time when recording one’s own songs was becoming de rigeur." - The Second Disc
Sure, The Lovin' Spoonful may have written "Younger Girl," but it should never have been anything but a Critters song. The group's original songs are perfect slices of rainy-day pop not unlike The Cyrkle. A song like "Come Back on a Rainy Day" is characterized by its gentle, cascading harmonies—rising and falling over a lightly tapped-out rhythm, it's a perfect pop moment captured in less than two minutes. Meanwhile, "I Wear a Silly Grin" has the same blend of bubblegum and soul that The Box Tops were so good at." - Allmusic