True to the Arf! Arf! label's form, this is a decidedly amateurish garage offering. Yet for all their limitations in ability and recording facilities, this teen-aged quintet rose above the norm with a fine offering of distinctive, all-original pop material.

Without question, the Fredric's main strength was in their ability to write strong hooks and implement them via carefully executed, three-part vocal harmonies. Nearly every song (including four bonus cuts) has a melody that sticks, with "The Girl I Love," "Born In Fire" and "Red Pier" being the standouts.

As one listens to tracks like those, it's also interesting to note the variety of influences. With airy vocals, baroque-like acoustic guitars and chiming keyboards pervading throughout the album, Phases and Faces sounds mostly like a lost Left Banke offering. However, there are also traces of the Kinks on "Henry Adams" (thematically similar to "Plastic Man" or "David Watts"), the Youngbloods on "Red Pier," and the Lovin' Spoonful on "Old Fashioned Guy" (which has the playful feel of "Daydream").

The only thing that prevents this album from being a classic is the naivete of its creators. For all their songwriting talents, these five Michiganders had a few things to learn when it came to arranging. Basically they would have been well-served by a George Martin-type to point out rhytmic holes, thin production and other minor deficiencies.

Then again, it may bery well be these quirks that give this album its flavor. The flavor, that is, which makes it one of the best garage obscurities to be reissued in recent years.

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