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Liner Note Author: David Wells . Five's Company is pretty much the definition of a curiosity. Comprised of a bunch of university students who decided it'd be a lark to have a band in the wake of the Beatles, the group wound up navigating the distance between British Invasion and folk-rock -- "Sunday for Seven Days" sounds like the Turtles by way of the Thames -- and used the Kinks as their lodestar, as evidenced by their cover of "Session Man." Five's Company couldn't generate original material that held its own with Ray Davies, but their florid pop is appealing and they were certainly better doing wry pop than R&B, as their ham-fisted cover of the Coasters' "Little Egypt" proves. "Little Egypt" arrives during a deadly mid-CD stretch filled with demos, but the collection rebounds with the inclusion of The Ballad of Fred the Pixie, a precious concept album whose concept is never evident. It sounds like Ringo Starr singing S.F. Sorrow, and that's not only enough to make it interesting, but to elevate Friends and Mirrors into a worthwhile curio. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
