The Challengers’ second album of 1966 doesn’t get a lot of attention from surf music collectors. I admit I had overlooked it for many years thinking of it as a compilation album of covers performed earlier in the band’s career. After all, the cover bears a striking resemblance to the 1967 Challengers 25 Greatest Hits compilation and it does possess three tracks lifted from other releases (‘Big Shot,’ ‘Pipeline,’ and ‘Cruel Sea’). To add to the confusion, the band had already recorded two versions of ‘Wipe Out’ in 1964 - one for the “K-39” album and the other under the guise of the Surfriders for Surfbeat Vol. 2. However, this is actually a bonafide original album complete with an updated ‘Wipe Out’ and the rest of the tracks are excellent late-surf rock. Also, the kick and drum sound on this are extremely modern sounding compared to most releases of this time.

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Being the latest edition to my collection, I’m pleased that my copy is in NM condition all around - I don’t think I heard a single crackle or pop throughout the whole thing. Kind of cool to find out something you didn’t know after many years collecting the same genre. Highly recommend this one!