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???
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???
posted by Adam at 4:48 PM
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