Mixed Bag

The title of Mixed Bag was an appropriate description of this rather scrapheap Troggs assembly, as it wasn't really a regular album. Instead, it was a budget-priced compilation matching eight songs that appeared on British and American singles in 1968 with four others that made their first appearance on the LP. "Hip Hip Hooray" was somewhat puerile bubblegum, and "Little Girl," a small British hit, was an attempt by Reg Presley to keep milking the pop ballad style he'd used the much better effect in earlier hits like "Love Is All Around." In brighter news, the old salacious Troggs sound surfaced to good effect in "Say Darlin'"; "You Can Cry if You Want To" was one of Presley's better soft numbers; and both "Purple Shades" and "Maybe the Madman" were two of the band's best ventures into psychedelia, albeit of the rather tongue-in-cheek sort.
All in all, there was a sophistication to what The Troggs where doing, it was lightyears from punk, their sound had a defined rooted reference point and was based around sound instrumentation and insightful musicianship.