CD Project Thing #12 -The B-52s, Badfinger, Badly Drawn Boy

The B-52s - Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation

And so begin the Bs. I never know what to say about marginal greatest
hits albums like this - it has the important hits ("Rock Lobster", "Love
Shack", "Roam"), a bunch of pretty decent songs that are worth having, a
bunch of songs that are just not interesting at all, and the obligatory
two new songs. It's a little lacking in the liner notes department,
featuring just pictures instead, but it does gain some points for being
chronological. Basically, it's one of those things where I wouldn't
really miss it if I didn't have it, but the hits are entertaining enough
that it's worth its spot on the shelf.

Badfinger - "The Very Best Of Badfinger"

If you don't know Badfinger, they're a 60s/70s UK Power Pop group.
Their biggest hit is probably "Come And Get It", which sounds like it
could be a Beatles song, probably because Paul McCartney wrote it for
them, but you probably also have heard "No Matter What", "Baby Blue" and
probably some others. You can mostly take my review of "Time Capsule"
and copy and paste it here. No new songs (which is probably a good
thing, since most of the band has been dead for a while), and it's just
semi-chronological, but we get liner notes so I guess it's a wash.

Badly Drawn Boy - "The Hour Of Bewilderbeast"

The first album (although hardly the first release, he had a number of
mostly rare or very rare EPs released before this, with well over an
album's worth of mostly pretty great music, that XL or Twisted Nerve or
whoever the hell owns the rights better reissue, dammit! You hear me?)
by Badly Drawn Boy, and I'd have to say it's one of the very best debut
albums I own. Top 10, at least. It's 18 tracks, about an hour long,
and with different combinations of musicians and instruments on almost
every track, and yet it really all hangs together as a coherent album
quite nicely. If you don't know this disc, it's really highly
recommended.

Badly Drawn Boy - "About A Boy"

Badly Drawn Boy doing the soundtrack to a book by my favorite author -
what could go wrong? Very little, actually. True, it's not quite a
REAL album (too many instrumentals for that), but it's still essential
in it's own right. Its sound is more unified than the previous album,
more organ based, and it really works completely fine without the movie.
If you didn't know it was a soundtrack, you might never guess it was.

It's a bit off the topic, but this album also had a bunch of good
b-sides that have the same sound (mostly different versions, remixes,
and outtakes from the movie). I didn't have any desire to buy a bunch
of different cds, though. There was a Japanese single that had, like,
all but one or two of them, and I would have bought it if it had ALL of
them, but for that much, I want it all, you know? So, labels, another
demand - after you do a Badly Drawn Boy EP release, do a b-sides
release. Hell, just do a big box of every single Badly Drawn Boy
non-album track, and throw in a bunch more unreleased stuff. Do it!
Quick! While people still care!

Badly Drawn Boy - "The Official Bootleg - Live @ Glastonbury"
(Canadian Import)

Badly Drawn Boy released two albums in 2002, and right in-between those
two albums came this live show, which was recorded by the BBC and then
released as a bonus disc with the latter album (possibly only in Canada,
which would explain why I have a Canadian import of it). It's a totally
solo show, with a mix of stuff from all three albums, plus a few b-sides
and covers. Being that it's solo, most of the stuff sounds pretty
different from the album versions. It's quite a worthwhile live album,
certainly better than a lot of live albums which got normal releases and
I was expected to pay normal album prices for.

Badly Drawn Boy - "Have You Fed The Fish?" (Canadian Import)

Badly Drawn Boy's second album of 2002 and his second "real" album overall, "Have You Fed The Fish?" is a pretty good album, but it doesn't compare to "The Hour Of Bewilderbeast". It does start to show some of the cracks in his songwriting, though - much of the second half is pretty boring (although it could have been better, if some of the b-sides had been on the album instead, and I suppose it's somewhat understandable considering it was his second album of the year). As of this moment, it's the last Badly Drawn Boy album I can actually recommend.

Badly Drawn Boy - "One Plus One Is One"

Besides being bad math, this just really isn't a good album. The problems are two-fold - first, there are just some really weird and bad production choices here. Way too many songs are dominated by horns or flutes or clarinets or recorders or children's choirs or other crap that has no business being all over a Badly Drawn Boy album. Trying new things is fine, but many of these instruments flat out annoy me. I might have been able to deal with that, if it wasn't for problem two: this is by far the worst batch of songs he's ever put out. There's basically nothing compelling here at all. And you know how I mentioned in the last album how the b-sides were better than the album? This album only had one single, and both b-sides were tacked on the American edition. They pretty much ARE better than most of the album, but it's still not nearly enough. Sell pile it goes...

After this album came out and sank without a trace, Badly Drawn Boy left his record label, recorded another album, scrapped it for not being good enough, recorded another album, released it, and that's apparently not very good, either. Have we lost Badly Drawn Boy for good???

What Have We Learned? - A

Artists: 13
Discs: 47

- Tori Amos is a lot better then I thought
- Archers Of Loaf need a good "Best Of" disc
- This is going to take a lot longer than I thought

CD Project Thing #11 - Ash, pt. 2, The Avalanches

Ash - "Walking Barefoot" (Australian Import)

As I previously mentioned, I used to have a LOT of Ash singles. Just from memory, I think I reached a high of point of 35 (and that's not counting a few EPs). I began to reconsider this a few years ago after getting married and moving and needing money and space (and it didn't hurt that Ash put out a b-sides disc, either). Since then, almost all of those singles have been removed from my collection and either sold or put on sale. This is the only one that survived the purge, and I'm not even sure why. It might be because it has 5 tracks (instead of the typical 3 on a UK single), but one track is on the album and another is on the b-sides album, so that's 3 new tracks. It's a decent cover of "Teenage Kicks" and two non-essential originals. Back to the sell pile it goes!

Ash - "Intergalactic Sonic 7"s" (2 CDs, UK Import)

As you might have noticed, I think Ash are a really good singles band. So, it stands to reason that when you take every Ash single, add a really good new single, and throw in some good liner notes and artwork and you've got a really good singles comp. Sadly, it's mostly pointless for me (there are a few single versions of songs, but nothing that really makes a difference), and it'll never get a US release, where it's really more important. Oh well.

The incentive to me was the second disc, known as "Cosmic Debris", full of 22 b-sides as voted on by fans. Ash have been very prolific with b-sides (they had 20 for "Free All Angels" alone, almost all of them new songs, and off the top of my head the only band I can think of who've ever beat that were the Smashing Pumpkins with "Mellon Collie"), and while I would have preferred a nice 3 disc set of every b-side, I guess I'll take what I can get. Most of their best b-sides made the disc, although there are of course some choices I have an issue with. Oh well, it is what it is, and there are some songs here that are pretty essential to own.

Ash - "Meltdown" (Plus bonus disc, UK Import")

I don't get Ash. Every time they go and do a big popular album ("1977", "Free All Angels"), they follow it up with a harder rock, less commercial album that basically bombs ("Nu-Clear Sounds", "Meltdown"). To be honest, I didn't like this one so much when I first heard it, but I think it's grown on me a bit. Still, it's probably the weakest Ash album (except maybe "Petrol"). Shortly after it's release they indicated they had a bunch left over and might shortly release a mostly acoustic album, but that never happened, possibly because Charlotte left the band. The new album is now coming out early next year, and I don't know much about it but I hope for the best.

I have the limited UK version of the album, which came with a bonus disc of the entire album played live (plus 3 other live songs). I sort of wish I had the US version instead (which has 3 extra studio tracks, but no live tracks), but I just haven't bothered, and it's just hard to convince myself to trade a whole live album for just 3 b-sides. If I can do it without losing any money, though, I still might.

The Avalanches - "Since I Left You"

This is a hard one for me to discuss, since I don't really have anything quite like it. The Avalanches are a few Australian DJs who made this entire album out of samples from all sorts of different sources (900 samples, according to Wikipedia). It's an 18 track album, but it all flows together like one track and despite coming from all different sources and all different genres really works well together. This came out about 6 years ago and they haven't done much since then except a few remixes, but there's a second album rumored to be coming one of these days. We can only hope.

CD Project Thing #10 - Ash, pt. 1

Ash - "Trailer"

Have you ever noticed how easy it seems for teenage bands to make it pretty big in the UK? Here, if it ever happens, it's just a novelty act (see Hanson). In the UK, though, I can think of tons of examples of bands of high schoolers that made an impact on the music scene.

What's my point? Well, Ash were one of those bands. They were just about 17 when this, their first album (although it was only an EP in the UK) came out, and like many first albums by teenagers it's a little inconsistant (which wasn't helped by the 4 b-sides tacked on the end). It has some really great singles, though (Jack Names THe Planets, Petrol, Uncle Pat), and a cover of a song by the excellent Helen Love (who you'll hear plenty more about in a few months). Plus, I think it's their only US album so far that didn't result in them getting dropped or their label going out of buisness, that's always a plus!
Ash - "1977"

This was Ash's big breakthrough in the UK (and I think it did a bit here, too). Some of the non-singles are perhaps a bit too much like filler, but with singles like "Goldfinger", "Oh Yeah", "Kung Fu" and "Girl From Mars" that can be excused.

Ash - "Live At The Wireless" (UK Import)

A 10-track live album from a performance done on Australian radio. It's made up mostly of tracks from "1977" (mostly done a little more aggressively), along with a Ween cover and a strange little song that (I presume) served as a commercial for the show. I don't really think it's the most essential album ever, but it's entertaining and different enough that it's worth having.

Ash - "Nu-Clear Sounds"

For the life of me, I don't get why this album bombed like it did. Sure, it's no "1977 pt. 2" (it's a more varied album, with a lot of songs a little more subtle than "1977", but it also has "Numbskull", possibly their heaviest song ever), but it's still a great, overlooked album. Oh well.

It was also their first album with new second guitarist and background vocalist Charlotte. She just recently left the band. It's sad.

The American version of this album is a little strange. Dreamworks seems to have thought that having Butch Vig remix three songs so they better fit the American market or something (whatever that means) would be a big selling point, so they put those three songs first on the album and put a sticker on the front promoting that fact. I'm guessing that it didn't work. On the plus side, though, they did tack on the soundtrack single "A Life Less Ordinary", one of my very favorite Ash songs. Good job, Dreamworks!

Ash - "Got A Beautiful Face...Got A Fucked Up Inside"

A 5-track US promo (name taken from the chorus to "Numbskull"), it features 2 original b-sides (both later to appear on the b-sides cd) and 3 covers (2 of which did not). If I could sell it, it's possible I'd consider it, but I couldn't make any money off it, and I do kinda like the covers, so it's all good.

Ash - "Free All Angels" (with bonus DVD)

Apparently Ash were down to their last 1000 pounds nat the time this album came out, so they seemingly decided to just do the most poppy, mainstream album they possibly could (with lots of strings, too), and out came "Free All Angels". Their plan worked, since it was a huge UK hit (and even did a bit over here, at least until their record label went out of business). This is probably the best Ash album - even most of the non-singles sound like they could be singles, and some of the actual singles are among the best pop songs I can think of. Hopefully Ash saved their money a bit better this time, eh?

Ash - "Session Acoustique Inedite" (French Import)

"Free All Angels" came out at the height of my collector days. When you take into account the fact that they put out a LOT of related things, and that they were all pretty cheap, things got a bit out of control. At one point, I had 2 copies of the album, 12 CD Singles, 4 EPs, 4 DVD singles and a full-length DVD, all from the "Free All Angels" era. I later came to my senses a bit, so a lot of that is long gone, but this 2 track EP isn't. It's a promo that came with some copies of the album in France with acoustic versions of "Shining Light" and "Burn Baby Burn" and it's quite nice. However, it might soon be gone, too - when I was recently doing a bit of research on this, I learned that the album had been \nreissued in France with a 12 song bonus disc, including both these songs, and that it could now be had fairly cheaply. 12 songs is better than 2, so if I can get that, this will go on the sale pile...

CD Project Thing #9 - Archers Of Loaf, pt. 2

Archers Of Loaf - "The Speed Of Cattle"

It's basically your pretty standard rarities comp - non-album singles, demos, radio sessions, unreleased tracks. It's also, perhaps surprisingly, probably my favorite Archers Of Loaf cd. I'm not sure if that's just because the longest (18 tracks!) or because I got it first, but I quite like it. I'd be hard-pressed to think of many cds that lead off with three tracks as good as "Wrong", "South Carolina" and "Web In Front". I mostly have a hard time telling the demo versions here from the original versions, but they're all good, and the majority of the cd is non-album stuff, so it all works out.

Archers Of Loaf - "All The Nation's Airports"

I'm running out of things to say about these Archers Of Loaf albums, I think. This one sounds a little less lo-fi and a little more produced, but it still sounds like an Archers Of Loaf album. It's not quite as good as their best ones, but I still enjoy it.

Archers Of Loaf - "Vitus Tinnitus"

This promo-only (I think) EP has 6 live tracks and then 2 remixes. It's one of those things that makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking - at some point, somehow, I got it into my head that I just HAD to own it, and I went crazy looking for it on eBay for months before I finally got one. And, why? There's nothing bad about it, exactly, but it's just amazingly inessential. I really don't need slightly different versions of songs I already own, especially when I might be able to make some money off this. Back to eBay it goes!

Archers Of Loaf - "White Trash Heroes"

The last Archers of Loaf album, and the worst one, I think. It's still not horrible, but they've dropped some of the more lo-fi and poppy elements for something a little darker and more dramatic. I quite like the title track, though, which is the last track on their last album. The singer would go on to form Crooked Teeth, who will appear (briefly) later in this blog.

CD Project Thing #8 - Archers Of Loaf, pt. 1

Archers Of Loaf - "Icky Mettle"

The summer after Freshman year of college, I came back home and worked full time at the library where I'd worked in high school. At the end of the summer, a co-worker of mine gave me a mix tape called "Indie Rock!". It was an amazing mix tape (and I really ought to see if I can still find it), and it contained many songs and bands that are among my favorites, even 7 years later.

What does that have to do with album? There was definitely some Archers Of Loaf on it, and if I recall correctly I think it was "Web In Front" from this album. Beyond that, I'm not so sure what to say about them - they're sort of slackerish lo-fi indie rock in the Pavement mold, except not as popular. There are some missteps here, but the amazing songs totally make up for it. If I danced around the room myself when nobody was around, which I so totally don't, songs like "Web In Front" and "Wrong" would be right up there on the list of songs that make me dance (which I don't!).

Archers Of Loaf - "Archers Of Loaf Vs. The Greatest Of All Time"

5-track EP of new songs. A few of them are really great, but I really don't have much to say about them. They sound a lot the first two Archers Of Loaf albums, which is a good thing. The band later released a comp cd, but none of these songs (at least not in these versions) made it, so it's still an essential EP.

Archers Of Loaf - "Vee Vee"

The second album, still sounding a lot like the first. I don't know that I like this quite as much as the first, but it does have "Harnassed In Slums", and it's hard to go wrong with that. This is also, as far as I'm aware, the first cd in my collection to have a hidden track, a few seconds of pointless guitar. Yay fast forward button!

CD Project Thing #7 - Andrew W.K., Angelfish, Annie

Andrew W.K. - "I Get Wet"

There could probably be an arguement made for filing this under "W" (and feel free to make it), but I've always felt it belonged under "A". Anyway, this is probably the heaviest sounding album I own. The thing is, it's also amazingly poppy and fun. I'm not sure I ever realized this before today, but parts of it sound quite a bit like a harder-rocking version of The Rentals, and if you know how I feel about The Rentals (hint: I love The Rentals), you know that's a good thing. It's honestly got me thinking of looking into his second album, because I can't imagine that it wouldn't be available really cheap.

Angelfish - "Angelfish"

From the "before they were stars" file, this was Shirley Manson's band before she joined Garbage. You can probably imagine exactly how it sounds - just think of any mediocre mid-90s guitar band with Shirley Manson's vocals. It's pretty decent, actually, but I'm saying that as a person who's a pretty big Garbage fan. I really don't know if it got any notice at all in 1994 (I suspect not), because every band sounded like this in 1994. I think the big winners in all of this were Radioactive Records, who (because of this album) got a credit on (and some money from, I'd presume) every Garbage album.

Annie - "Anniemal"

I never knew much about Annie (still don't, really) except that she's Norwegian and that Pitchfork really liked her singles, putting a few of them in top positions in their "singles of the year" chart. Now, normally Pitchfork liking something doesn't matter to me at all, but they also described her as really poppy, and we all know what a sucker I am for the pop. So when this album hit BMG, I had to get it, and I'm glad I did, since "Chewing Gum" might be the very best song ever. If I had to describe the album as anything I'd say it's sort of like early Madonna, except not really. You've just got to listen to it, I think.

Wikipedia fact of the day: Annie recorded a version of "Chewing Gum" in Simish for the Scandanivan version of "The Sims 2: Nightlife". I'm so jealous.

Bonus Disc - Y Kant Tori Read

Y Kant Tori Read - "Y Kant Tori Read"

This is a "bonus disc" for two reasons - I don't actually own it (just a CD-R that Marisa made), and if I did, it would have to be under Y. Since I'd just listened to so much Tori, though, I was curious what this album (done by her with a band before "Little Earthquakes") would sound like. And the answer? It sounds like the most 80s album ever (which I suppose makes sense, since it WAS 1988). It's really hard to believe how cheesy most of it is. It begs the question, did she THINK it was good?

Marisa's copy has 6 bonus tracks (as most do, apparently) that come from later in her career, and sound like it. They're decent enough, I suppose

CD Project Thing #6 - Tori Amos, pt. 3

Tori Amos - "To Venus And Back" (2 discs)

Disc one is a studio album. It's another "alternative-band" type album, a lot like the previous one except a little more electronic sounding and maybe a little less rock. It's quite a good album, though, a few songs on this are among the best I've heard from her so far.The second disc is a live disc recorded on her '98 tour. As you'll see going forward, I tend to not have very much to say about live discs. It's decent enough, I guess, except that she didn't end up picking many of the songs I especially like, so it doesn't do a whole lot for me.

Tori Amos - "Strange Little Girls"

Another topic I never have much to say about? Cover albums. I never know how to judge them - is it good to have lots of songs I know, or bad? Is it good if the songs sound the same, or bad? Who knows? For the record, most of the songs on here I don't know, but the ones I do sound very different, so they probably all do. Except for a few expiermental type things (an Ememim cover that's mostly spoken word, a Beatles cover with lots of sampled soundbits), most of the music here is pretty soft and low-key. It's nothing bad exactly, but it sounds like it could be the b-sides of a real album. (The funny part is, the "Crucify" EP, where the covers WERE the b-sides of a real album, was much more interesting than this).

Tori Amos - "Scarlett's Walk" (with bonus DVD)

Tori's first with a new label, and it's a bit of a return to form, sounding more like her first two albums than anything she'd done since then. This is a concept album about a girl walking across the country or something, but what it seems to mean is lots songs (like 18!), mostly very piano-heavy. Marisa liked this a lot when she first got it (I actually got it for her, and did a price match to get the (fairly pointless special edition) for the same price as the regular album), so she played it a lot, so a lot of the songs I already knew (and sometimes even get stuck in my head). It's really a surprisingly good album.

Tori had another album past this ("The Beekeeper"), and we even owned it for a day, but Marisa thought it was so boring we sold it after one listen. Is this the end for Tori as a decent artist, or can she bounce back? She has a new album out next year, I suppose we'll find out then.

CD Project Thing #5 - Tori Amos, pt. 2

Tori Amos - "Boys For Pele"

Tori's third album, and it sounds pretty different than the first two. She plays harpsicord on some tracks instead of piano, and many of the tracks are much louder and denser with more of a full-band sound (and "Professional Widow" is downright scary played loud). Even the artwork is a little creepy (with stuff like "Tori with a gun" and "Tori breastfeeding a pig"). It's also far longer than the first two were. Unlike the first two albums, I don't think I knew any of these songs (Wikipedia says that despite possibly being her least well-known album, it's her best-selling, and I sort of see what they mean). In the end, though, my thoughts on it are the same as what my thoughts are ending up being on most Tori stuff - a few exceptional songs, and a bunch of songs I'm indifferent towards.

Tori Amos - "From The Choirgirl Hotel"

If the last album was starting to use a band a bit, this sounds flat out like a band album. Pretty much every song has a full band on it, and unlike her previous work it's rare for a song to have a really dominant piano. It sounds a lot like many other mid-to late-90s alternative bands, actually. Which I suppose is why I actually knew a few of these songs from the radio and MTV. (As an aside, I find that a large percentage of the time, the Tori songs I really like were singles. Am I just subconciously a poser who only likes what he's told to like, or is Tori just really good at picking the best songs as singles? The world may never know.)

Tori Amos - "Spark" CD Single

This is a 2-track CD Single, and the b-side isn't especially interesting. I asked Marisa why she bought it, in hopes of a good story for this spot, and she didn't even know. Into the sell pile it goes!

CD Project Thing #4 - Alice In Chains, The Allman Brothers Band, Tori Amos pt. 1

Alice In Chains - "Nothing Safe: The Best Of The Box"

Alice In Chains are a band with lots of comps. There's the 10-track "Best Of", a 2 disc "Essential" and a 4 (I think) Box Set. And then there's this, a single 16-track disc that's technically "the best of the box", but is also essentially a greatest hits of the band itself, and it's just about all the Alice In Chains I need. Why do I say "just about"? Well, the damn thing doesn't have "Heaven Beside You", which is possibly my favorite Alice In Chains song. Thing is, the "Best Of" DOES have it, but it also drops a few songs from this, including "Get Born Again", which I like. I'm sure I don't need 2 discs, so I guess I'll just stick with what I have.

Something else interesting: I didn't realize until reading the liner notes that Jerry Cantrall wrote all the songs (many of them solo). I guess that makes the fact that the band is going on tour with a new singer somewhat less lame.

The Allman Brothers Band - "A Decade Of Hits 1969-1979"

And we reach the first of Marisa's cds ("Moon Safari" might have been hers first, but I officially adopted it and love it as I would one of my own cds). Guess you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South(ern rocK) out of the girl. Anyway, to the album. Sort of a misleading title, since a total of one song is from 1979 and the other 15 are from 1969-1973. Also, these might have been hits at the time, but only about half of them are things I know from my classic rock radio. I've got to say, I was scared of this cd - I tend not to be a fan of stuff from the 70s (especially early 70s, especially American), and I had the idea in my head that there would be lots of guitar jamming, which I really sort of hate. Well, it was better than I expected - like I said, I knew about half of it, and most of the songs weren't superlong, and many didn't have any big guitar solos at all. So, while I don't really have any desire to listen to more, I now consider the Allman
Brothers Band to be decent.

Tori Amos - "Little Earthquakes"

Another artist that's Marisa's. One of Marisa's favorites, in fact. Me, I've never had anything against Tori, but I just never really considered getting into her, mainly because of all the effort it seemed to require to be a Tori fan (and the
implications of what being a male Tori fan would make people think). It just wasn't worth it.

To the album itself - I must have heard Marisa play this in the car a bunch, because most of it actually sounded familiar, and most of it was actually pretty good. Not "OMG I would die for you Tori!" good, but good. Even now, it sounds pretty unique and different, it must have blown people's minds in 1991. There are some moments where she's a little TOO emotional and her voice brushes against "annoying", but overall it's a solid debut. Can she keep it up? I don't know myself, we'll find out together!

Tori Amos - "Crucify" (CD Single)

In addition to a (superior) remix version of the title track, the key thing here are solo piano covers of "Angie" (Rolling Stones), "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana) and "Thank You" (Led Zepplin). As you might expect, none of them sounds anything like the original, especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which might as well be a completly different song.

Tori Amos - "Under The Pink"

Tori's second album, it's a lot like "Little Earthquakes" except a little more adventurous and not as good. It's got a few good songs at the beginning of the album, but by the end I was sort of bored by it.