Barry Ryan made a minor splash as a vocal duo with his brother Paul in the mid-60s, crafting sweet and sophisticated music made special by their harmonies. Paul tired of the life of a struggling performer and he turned to songwriting, while Barry provided the voice. Together they went on to score one major hit, 1968's "Eloise," and created some very interesting albums pitched somewhere between the Bee Gees and a lysergic cabaret crooner loose in toytown. The Albums 1969 -79 gathers up the four albums the duo worked on -- 1969's Barry Ryan Sings Paul Ryan, the same year's Barry Ryan, 1970's Barry Ryan 3, and 1971's Red Man -- along with mostly unheard 1972 record titled Sanctus Sanctus Hallelujah and two full discs of singles and unreleased tracks. Throughout the set Barry Ryan proves himself to be a flexible and winning vocalist, whether he's hitting the majestic highs of bonkers tracks like "Eloise" and "Red Man," swinging through soft orchestral pop ballads, dishing out hard rock yowls, or proving adept at disco smoothness. The first four albums are a delightful trip through the oddball mind of Paul Ryan, both his lyrics and productions veer just enough left of center to escape the middle of the road, and Barry infuses them with enough life to make them sound fresh decades later. When Barry spilt off on his own in search of a more organic style, he recorded with a small band and unsurprisingly showed out nicely. The barley released Sanctus Sanctus Hallelujah is the rare rarity that live up to what little hype there ever was, Its mix of window rattling rockers, jumped up Beatles pastiches, rumbling singer/songwriter fare, and bubblegummy pop is quite delightful. Safe to say it was a little too scattered to really appeal to his record companies prospective bottom line, but it sounds brilliant here. The cornucopia of rare singles track the Ryans through the years nicely, giving another view of their talents that fans of late 60's British pop should find a treasure. When Barry went off on his own in the mid-70s, he sidestepped quite nicely into soft rock, not sounding a million miles from Elton John at times. The second disc of rarities finishes up with a clutch of songs Barry recorded in the late '70s that haven't been previously issued and here he tries his hand at disco (successfully) and rock ballads ( a little less so.) It's a fun conclusion to a very important collection that puts Barry and Paul Ryan out there as a pair of the most out there, daring and interesting auteur/vocalist duos of maybe ever. Even if one were to argue with that bold statement, it's impossible to deny that there is a whole bunch of really fun, gleefully weird, and surprisingly undated music to be found among the hundred plus songs in the set. ~ Tim Sendra