Consumer Guide Album

Animals: Retrospective [Abkco, 2004]
I've never been entranced enough by Eric Burdon to decide whether he was clueless clod or sneaky smart, but for sure he's one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's nostalgia entries. Whatever happened in the '60s, he was there to soak it up and emote it back in his pitch-challenged, Negro-worshipping bray--Denmark Street pop, Brill Building pop, copyright hustlers' blues. His undiscriminating enthusiasm plus a ruthlessly professional band helps the stuff go down, most remarkably the hippie trilogy he (co)wrote himself: "San Franciscan Nights," "Monterey," and the dumbfounding "Sky Pilot," a depiction of an American serviceman so dense or opaque it's visionary. "A Girl Named Sandoz," on the other hand, is a bad trip. [Recyclables]