A new Parlophone compilation, The Shel Talmy Recordings, gathers David Bowie's mid-1960s output from his pre-fame years as Davie Jones, when he recorded two commercially unsuccessful singles with the Mannish Boys and the Lower Third. The Guardian's review argues the reissue is part of a broader posthumous tendency to treat almost everything Bowie ever recorded as significant, even material he himself largely tried to ignore during his lifetime, and finds the 21-track set reveals period pastiche rather than hidden brilliance.

The compilation, produced by the late Shel Talmy (best known for his work with the Kinks and the Who), includes previously unreleased tracks alongside an extensive range of tie-in merchandise such as T-shirts, a hoodie, a tote bag and socks. The reviewer describes songs like Take My Tip, Baby Loves That Way and I Pity the Fool as derivative of contemporaries such as Georgie Fame, Smokey Robinson and Slim Harpo, concluding the music firmly reflects its 1965 context rather than anticipating Bowie's later originality, which only emerged with tracks like Can't Help Thinking About Me the following year.