In the Vaults, Vol. 5

Liner Note Authors: Dave Burke ; Alan Taylor.
Illustrators: Dave Burke ; Gerry Woodage.
It beggars belief that in 2014 there remains unheard Ventures material lying in the vaults, but Ace managed to find 26 rarities for In the Vaults, Vol. 5, 24 of which remained unreleased until this 2014 compilation. The exceptions to the rule are two singles: Bobby Leonard & the Explorers' "Rockin' Ship," a pretty groovy space-themed single from 1962 that sounds like the Ventures rocking along with a pianist (as it should, because Bob Bogle wrote and produced this on his own), and Don Dixon's romantic "For Your Love" from 1961, which sounds like the Ventures with a puppy-eyed crooner. Elsewhere, there are more songs from the 1965 On Stage LP that have been stripped of crowd noise (this was a selling point of the fourth volume of In the Vaults, which appeared seven years earlier); alternates of "Ups 'n' Downs," "Ventures Stomp," "Sealed with a Kiss," "Lady of Spain," and "Stranger on the Shore"; plus other variations of familiar tunes. Much of this is instrumental, sounding not much different and not much worse than the tracks that made the final cuts on Ventures LPs, but it's the surprises that make this worthwhile: the frenetic vocals on the teen rocker "I Want You to Want Me"; a silly "Turkey in the Straw" interpretation called "Country Gravy aka Turkey 'n' Taters"; and, especially, the concluding triptych of "Fuzz Factor," "Sauerkraut," and a live-in-the-studio "Wipe Out" that Dave Burke and Alan Taylor correctly point out in their extensive liner notes are "grungy and weighty" rockers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine