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.
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.
posted by Adam at 10:07 AM
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