We got lots of votes, so I'm going to post the top 40 this year instead of just the top 25.




SPOILERS

Spoiler/NSFW: click to show/hide

1 Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
2 Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
3 Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol.8/Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006
4 King Khan & the Shrines - 'The Supreme Genius of King Khan & the Shrines'
5 Jay Reatard - Matador Singles 08
6 Jay Reatard - Singles 06-07
7 Pavement -- Brighten The Corners: The Nicene Creedence Edition
8 Neil Young - Sugar Mountain Live at Canterbury House
9 Gas – Nah Und Fern
10 R.E.M. – Murmur (Deluxe Edition)
11 Rivers Cuomo - Alone II: The Home Recordings
12 Whiskeytown - 'Stranger's Almanac (Deluxe Edition)'
13 Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions
14 Maroon 5 - Call and Response
15 Replacements - Tim
16 Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff (Deluxe Edition)
17 Beck - Odelay (Deluxe Edition)
18 Love - Forever Changes: 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition
19 Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983 - 2006 Retrospective
20 African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo 70s
21 Replacements--Pleased to Meet Me
22 Clash - Live at Shea Stadium
23 Studio - Yearbook 2
24 Otis Redding - Live In London and Paris
25 Ween - At The Cat's Cradle, 1992
26 David Bowie - Live Santa Monica '72
27 U2 - Boy (expanded and remastered)
28 Replacements - Let it Be
29 Rocket From the Crypt – All Systems Go 3
30 Eels – Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006
31 Smiths - The Sound Of The Smiths
32 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - This Year's Model (28th Deluxe edition)
33 BIPPP: French Synth Wave 1979-85
34 Creedence Clearwater Revival- Cosmo’s Factory
35 J.T. IV - Cosmic Lightning
36 Eels - Meet The Eels: Essential Eels, Vol. 1 1996-2006
37 Arthur Russell - Love is Overtaking Me
38 Jesus and Mary Chain--The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides and Rarities
39 Long Blondes - "Singles"
40 Carl Craig – Sessions

Rock.

I mean, "First," or something.

#40.




Carl Craig - Sessions
(230 Points, 3 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Directions- Busted Trees (Carl Craig 'Sessions' Remix)
2. Junior Boys- Like A Child (Carl Craig Remix)
3. Rhythm & Sound- Poor People Must Work (Carl Craig Remix)
4. Chez Damier- Help Myself (Reconstructed by Carl Craig)
5. Paperclip People- Throw (Unreleased Version)
6. Beanfield- Tides (Carl Craig "Sessions' Remix)
7. Paperclip People- Clear and Present
8. Theo Parrish- Falling Up (Carl Craig Remix)
9. Paperclip People- Oscililator (Original Version)
10. Cesaria Evora- Angola (Carl Craig's Mix)
11. Francesco Tristano- The Melody (Carl Craig Remix)
12. Delia Gonzales & Gavin Russom- Revelee (Carl Craig 'Sessions' Remix)
Disc: 2
1. 69- Rushed (Original Version)
2. 69- Pyschobeat (Previously Unreleased)
3. Xpress2- Kill 100 (Carl Craig"Sessions" Remix)
4. Tres Demented- Demented (Or Just Crazy) (Original Version)
5. Faze Action- In The Trees ( Unreleased Carl Craig Remix)
6. Tres Demented- Brainfreeze (Carl Craig 'Sessions' Mix)
7. Carl Craig- Futurelovetheme (Carl Craig 'Sessions' Mix)
8. Carl Craig- Sandstorms (Original Version)
9. Innerzone Orchestra- Bug In The Bass Bin (Carl Craig "Sessions" Mix)

Amazon.com Product Description:
"Sessions" serves both as a retrospective on the work of the Grammy nominated electronic music originator and a collection of his most important remixes. The two disc set is compiled and mixed by Craig himself, and is a fantastic view of the work of a master.

AMG Says:
Compiling each Carl Craig remix would be a several-disc box set undertaking. The pool from which to draw is wide and deep, from Nexus 21's 1989 track "(Still) Life Keeps Moving" through Junior Boys' Grammy nominated "Like a Child." Hopefully just the first way of addressing this large stockpile of varied tracks, Sessions is a two-disc set mixed by Craig that focuses primarily on his remixes (of tracks by others as well as himself) while interspersing a few original mixes of his productions. Though the set reaches back to 1992 for Chez Damier's synthetic-handclap-happy "Help Myself," there's a clear emphasis on Craig's more recent activities, with well over half of the tracks dating from 2004 or later. While he hadn't quite pulled a disappearing act during the late '90s and very early 2000s -- 2002's The Workout being one of the most improperly slept-on house/techno mixes of the last several years -- he underwent something of a rebirth around 2003, releasing a string of unpredictable and high-quality productions while developing into one of the hottest remixers on the planet. Most of the big re-workings are here in original or "exclusive," meaning slightly different, form: the low-key hiss-and-ping of Junior Boys' "Like a Child," Faze Action's searing/surging "In the Trees," Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom's spiraling "Relevee." In most cases -- Theo Parrish's "Falling Up" being the one major exception -- Craig's versions outstrip the originals not just by making them more palatable to moving bodies but also by teasing out elements and supplementing them with new wrinkles to make headphone listening as stimulating as dancefloor play. Remaining vital in any field for 20 years is an achievement, but doing so while forecasting and riding the rapid developments in dance music is something else entirely. This release goes some distance -- about as far as possible in two and a half hours -- to acknowledge that notion.

Ranked Highest By: vurt(#4)

Amazon Link

#39.




The Long Blondes - "Singles"
(235 Points, 3 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. "New Idols"
2. "Long Blonde"
3. "Autonomy Boy"
4. "Giddy Stratospheres"
5. "Polly"
6. "Darts"
7. "Appropriation (By Any Other Name)"
8. "My Heart Is Out Of Bounds"
9. "Lust In The Movies"
10. "Separated By Motorways" (Demo)
11. "Big Infatuation"
12. "Peterborough"

Amazon.com Product Description:
2008 release that collects together the UK band's four pre-Rough Trade singles, all highly sought after limited seven inch vinyl pressings available here for the first time on CD. This album also features two bonus tracks, and captures the energy and excitement of The Long Blondes at their best. The CD features a brand new painting by singer Kate Jackson especially for this release, and a poster sleeve designed by The PIX magazine features rare early pictures, interviews and sleeve notes by the band. 12 tracks. Angular Records.

AMG Says: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Mitchell, Bobzilla (#6)

Amazon Link

#38.




The Jesus and Mary Chain - The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides and Rarities
(242 Points, 4 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Up Too High(Demo '83)
2. Upside Down
3. Vegetable Man
4. Suck
5. Ambition
6. Just Out Of Reach
7. Boyfriend's Dead
8. Head
9. Just Like Honey(Demo Oct. '84)
10. Cracked
11. Taste Of Cindy(Acoustic)
12. The Hardest Walk
13. Never Understand(Alternate)
14. The Living End(Demo)
15. Some Candy Talking
16. Psychocandy
17. Hit
18. Cut Dead(Acoustic)
19. You Trip Me Up(Acoustic)
20. Walk And Crawl

Disc: 2
1. Kill Surf City
2. Bo Diddley Is Jesus
3. Who Do You Love
4. Everything's Alright When You're Down
5. Shake
6. Happy When It Rains(Demo)
7. Happy Place
8. F.Hole
9. Rider
10. On The Wall(Porta Studio Demo)
11. Surfin' USA(April Out-Take)
12. Here It Comes Again
13. Don't Ever Change
14. Swing
15. Sidewalking
16. Surfin' USA(Summer Mix)
17. Shimmer
18. Penetration
19. Break Me Down
20. Subway
21. My Girl

Disc: 3
1. In The Black
2. Terminal Beach
3. Deviant Slice
4. I'm Glad I Never
5. Drop(Acoustic Re-Mix)
6. Rollercoaster
7. Silverblade
8. Lowlife
9. Tower Of Song
10. Heat
11. Guitarman
12. Why'd You Want Me
13. Sometimes
14. Teenage Lust(Acoustic Version)
15. Reverberation(Doubt)
16. Don't Come Down
17. Snakedriver
18. Something I Can't Have
19. Write Record Release Blues
20. Little Red Rooster

Disc: 4
1. The Perfect Crime
2. Little Stars
3. Drop-Re-Recorded
4. I'm In With The Out Crowd
5. New York City
6. Taking It Away
7. Ghost Of A Smile
8. Alphabet Street
9. Coast To Coast(Alternate-William VOX)
10. Dirty Water(Demo-William VOX)
11. Till I Found You
12. Bleed Me
13. 33 1/3
14. Lost Star
15. Hide Myself
16. Rocket
17. Easylife, Easylove
18. 40,000k
19. Nineteen666

Amazon.com Product Description:
Founded and led by brothers William and Jim Reid - guitarists and vocalists both - these Glasgow-based post-punk icons changed the course of alt-rock with their bold Velvet Underground-meets-Brian Wilson sound.

AMG Says:
The Jesus and Mary Chain's 2008 Rhino four-disc box set The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides & Rarities, collects all of the influential Scottish noise-pop band's various B-side singles, cover songs, and sundry demos in one terrific package. Fans of JAMC who already own the band's albums should be pleased to see that none of the original album tracks are included here. For those who don't own them, Rhino's 2006 bonus disc reissues of Psychocandy, Darklands, Automatic, Honey's Dead, and Stoned & Dethroned is the place to start. However, in many ways The Power of Negative Thinking is a more honest portrait of JAMC than even the studio albums reveal. Often mischaracterized as gloomy, goth rock misanthropes -- only partly true -- JAMC were in truth huge fans of '60s sunshine pop, surf rock, and even hip-hop and aspired to a kind of D.I.Y. Phil Spector Wall of Sound aesthetic that found them substituting Spector's strings and horns with walls of feedbacking guitar. These are rough demos meant to capture the Reid brothers' raw creative vision of rock music that -- as guitarist Jim Reid says in the liner notes -- had, "the pop sensibilities of the Shangri-Las, but with the production values of the Birthday Party." In that sense, we get JAMC from their dreamy lo-fi punk roots with the 1983 drum machine-driven demo for "Up Too High" and 1984's sludgy feedback-laden "Upside Down," to their time as '90s alt rock icons on such pristinely polished efforts like shimmering 1992 ballad "Why Do You Want Me?" and the catchy folk-rock of 1994's "Something I Can't Have." We even get one of the few non-Reid entries in bassist Ben Lurie's pop nugget "Rocket." Also enlightening are such giddy cover songs as JAMC's version of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love," Prince's "Alphabet Street," and the Temptations' "My Girl" which purportedly JAMC were so drunk during the recording of they could barely hold their instruments. It's also true that the Reid brothers were big fans of Bob Dylan and that many of these songs were written on acoustic guitar. Not surprisingly, here we get blissfully melodic acoustic versions of "Just Like Honey" and "Taste of Cindy," which actually come fairly close to fulfilling JAMC's Spector-ish aspirations. Ultimately, The Power of Negative Thinking isn't the whole JAMC story, but it's the whole story behind the scenes and A-side singles, and sometimes the B-sides. Even better.

Ranked Highest By: SimulatedStereo (#7)

Amazon Link

#37.




Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
(242 Points, 3 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. Close My Eyes
2. Goodbye Old Paint
3. Maybe She
4. Oh Fernanda Why
5. Time Away
6. Nobody Wants A Lonely Heart
7. I Couldn't Say It To Your Face
8. This Time Dad You'Re Wrong
9. What It's Like
10. ELI
11. Hey! How Does Everybody Know
12. I Forget And I Can't Tell
13. Habit Of You
14. Janine
15. Big Moon
16. Your Motion Says
17. The Letter
18. Don't Forget About Me
19. Love Is Overtaking Me
20. Planted A Thought
21. Love Comes Back

Amazon.com Product Description:
Hailed by a two generations of listeners as one of the most important (and overlooked) songwriters of the last 25 years, Arthur Russell's music remains as contemporary today as when it was first recorded. Over the last four years, Audika Records has diligently mined Russell's vast archive of previously unreleased music with the critically lauded albums Calling Out of Context, Springfield, World of Echo, and First Thought Best Thought. Now, the label completes the oeuvre, showing Russell's singer-songwriter side. Love Is Overtaking Me collects the best of the previously unreleased folk, pop, and country stylings from Arthur Russell's archive. Compiled from over eight hours of material and three years in the making, the album includes some of Russell's earliest '70s compositions through to his very last at-home recordings in 1991. Several of these tracks are featured prominently in Matt Wolf 's film Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, including "Close My Eyes," "Eli," The Letter," and "Love Is Overtaking Me." The album is compiled from several sources, including the legendary demos made for John Hammond Sr., a demo of a country song written for Randy Travis, and the late '80s collaboration with Steven Hall recording as Bright & Early. Extensive liner notes from Russell's longtime companion Tom Lee provide perspective into the intimate nature of Arthur's process and songwriting.

AMG Says:
Since 2005, New York City's Audika imprint has dedicated itself to releasing the recordings of the late composer, cellist, and singer/songwriter Arthur Russell, a musical polymath who was as comfortable in the discos of Manhattan as he was in a cowboy hat in the fields as he appears here, on the cover of Love Is Overtaking Me. Audika has issued four albums -- three different compilations centering on different aspects of his musical adventurousness, an EP, and his seminal World of Echo album. Love Is Overtaking Me contains 21 tracks recorded between 1974 and 1990. It reveals another dimension of this seemingly limitless musician: his pop and country-ish recordings, done solo as demos, in session with the brilliant John Hammond at Columbia, and with musicians from the East Village and downtown scenes including Peter Gordon Ernie Brooks, Andy Paley, Jerry Harrison, Steven Hall, Larry Saltzman, Jon Gibson, Jimmy Chamberlain, David Van Tieghem, and Peter Zummo. Some of these are rehearsal versions of tunes he performed and recorded with his bands the Flying Hearts and the Sailboats project with Hall.

Russell's companion Tom Lee wrote the liner notes to this set and discusses the sheer possibility for mass appeal in these songs; he's not exaggerating. Take a listen to the demo of the title track recorded with Hall on guitar, drummer Rob Shepperson, and conguero Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed. Its verse/chorus structure is woven straight from classic organic pop/rock melody -- think a less twisted Jonathan Richman -- and is utterly infectious. Elsewhere, in "I Couldn't Say It to Your Face," one can hear traces of John Lennon, James Taylor, and Randy Newman. Recorded by Hammond, this cut featured a full band with Gibson, Brooks, Gordon, Paley, trombonist Garrett List, and bassist Jon Sholle. The melody shimmers underneath a lyric that contains warmth, love, anger, and irony. The very next track, "This Time Dad You're Wrong," with a standard rock quartet, features a shuffling country rhythm under a melody that combines the sophistication of Big Star and the poetic directness of Willie Nelson. The latter is exaggerated a bit on the spoken/sung "What It's Like," but it's a story song and it works. The opening number, "Close My Eyes," is a pure country waltz, with Russell accompanying himself on a guitar -- he was almost as deft on it as he was on cello. These tunes reflect Russell's California origins. But there's the other side too; the New York side in the rockin' "Big Moon" and "Janine," which, though utterly friendly and even beautiful, is a kind of fractured future pop that transcends its form. On "Love Comes Back," Russell accompanies himself with a cheap drum machine and keyboards; he closes the entire argument as to what he was about artistically no matter how wide-ranging his recordings were: he was a composer and songwriter who wished -- and succeeded -- to express tenderness, empathy, and gentleness in everything he did. Russell's music connected with so many of his peers -- no matter what scene they were in -- and with his posthumous listeners for that reason alone. Russell was 100-percent genuine, and as Ted Berrigan once wrote, "on the level, everyday." This is one of the finest chapters yet in Audika's continuing retrospective. Let's hope there is still more where this came from.

Ranked Highest By: dicorice (#3)

Amazon Link

EDIT: Skipped #36. That will be up in this spot in a minute.


#36.




eels - Meet The eels: Essential eels 1996-2006, Vol. 1
(246 Points, 2 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Novocaine For The Soul
2. Susan's House
3. My Beloved Monster
4. Your Lucky Day In Hell
5. 3 Speed
6. Last Stop: This Town
7. Climbing To The Moon (Jon Brion Remix)*
8. Flyswatter
9. I Like Birds
10. Mr. E's Beautiful Blues
11. It's A Motherfucker
12. Souljacker Part 1
13. That's Not Really Funny
14. Fresh Feeling
15. Get Ur Freak On*
16. Saturday Morning
17. Love Of The Loveless
18. Dirty Girl (Live At Town Hall)
19. I Need Some Sleep
20. Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
21. I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart
22. Trouble With Dreams
23. Railroad Man
24. Losing Streak

Disc: 2 (DVD)
1. Novocaine For The Soul
2. Susan's House
3. Rags To Rags
4. Your Lucky Day In Hell
5. Last Stop: This Town
6. Cancer For The Cure
7. Flyswatter
8. Souljacker part I
9. Saturday Morning
10. Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
11. Trouble With Dreams
12. Dirty Girl (Live at Town Hall)

Amazon.com Product Description:
MEET THE EELS: ESSENTIAL EELS VOL. 1, 1996-2006 spans the first decade of the EELS with 24 selections on CD and 12 previously unreleased videos on DVD. Featuring fan favorites culled fromthe EELS critically acclaimed releases on Dreamworks and Vagrant. ESSENTIAL EELS also includes 2 previously unreleased tracks, the Jon Brion remix of "Climbing To The Moon" and a cover of Missy Elliot's "get ur freak on."

AMG Says:
For Eels fans, and especially those obsessed with Mark Oliver Everett, the man who created and fronts the ever-changing lineup as well as writing its songs, 2008 kicked off anything but quietly. Despite a mere six studio and one live record in the band's catalog, E and Universal/Geffen have issued what amounts to a truckload of backlog material on two separate -- some would say excessive -- releases: Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006, Vol. 1, a CD/DVD package, and Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities, and Unreleased 1996-2006. The latter includes two discs of music and a live DVD documenting the band's 2006 Lollapalooza performance.

Meet the Eels is, arguably, the way a "hits" compilation should be presented, to fans as well as the merely curious. It's loaded to the gills with 24 cuts that include the unreleased "Get Ur Freak On." The rest of this monster is culled with cuts from Beautiful Freak (four) Electro-Shock Blues (two), plus an unissued remix of "Climbing to the Moon," by Jon Brion.This decade gets the lion's share of the material naturally, with four tunes from 2000s Daisies of the Galaxy, and a trio off 2001's Souljacker; a pair of tunes were tacked on from Shootenanny! (still the most confounding toss of the band's history), and a whopping five from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. The latter was the band's best-selling record and yet it's still debated hotly among fans. One thing is for sure: for the first time since Beautiful Freak it drew new listeners in droves. Also included here for some unfathomable reason is "Dirty Girl," from the Live at Town Hall offering, and luckily, "I Need Some Sleep," from the soundtrack album for Shrek 2. Right, you guessed it, nothing here comes from A Man Called E, making it an incomplete Everett document, but it's close enough.

Simply put, there is no reason to go into the track choices, they are listed below and can be debated endlessly anyway. This tri-fold digipack is loaded with photos, E's own elliptical annotations for the tracks, and a wonderfully long and now legendary piece by Mark Edwards from the Sunday Times in London. Some of E's notes are clever, and some seem just plain tossed off, as if they are memories he really doesn't have any longer but needed to get down on paper for this. That's OK -- his very natural ambivalence is part of the appeal in his idiosyncratic, adventurous, and original songs. The DVD contains virtually every video the band shot and released for commercial play; they are compiled and available as a retail item for the first time. As great an introduction or mix the CD makes, it's the video collection that makes it all worth the cash. Given the kitchen sink approach of it, it offers an even more diverse and undebatable document; showcasing everything from original conceptions by directors to the escalator to the oblivion lineup changes. There is simply no better way to get acquainted with an enigma.

Ranked Highest By: Mike Schank (#1)

Amazon Link

#35.




J.T. IV - Cosmic Lightning
(270 Points, 2 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1 - Waiting For The Cta
2 - Death Trip
3 - The Monitors
4 - Song For Suzanne
5 - In The Can
6 - Out Of The Can
7 - Destructo Rock
8 - I Really Love You / You Know That I Love You, Don't You?
9 - One Fine Day With The Karma Man
10 - Go Wild

Amazon.com Product Description:
Like a bolt from the black, COSMIC LIGHTNING has struck again but who felt the shock the first time around? The sounds of J.T. IV were too much for 1980s Chicago. Now they can be truly absorbed, twenty years after they first flashed.

AMG Says: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Ted Falconi (#1)

Amazon Link

Good to see The Long Blondes sneak in.

#34.




Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
(281 Points, 3 Votes)

Tracklist:
1 Ramble Tamble
2 Before You Accuse Me
3 Travelin' Band
4 Ooby Dooby
5 Lookin' out My Back Door
6 Run Through the Jungle
7 Up Around the Bend
8 My Baby Left Me
9 Who'll Stop the Rain
10 I Heard It Through the Grapevine
11 Long as I Can See the Light
12 Travelin' Band [*]
13 Up Around the Bend [live/*]
14 Born on the Bayou [*]

Amazon.com Product Description:
If, as many contend, Creedence Clearwater Revival was the foremost singles rock band of its time, Cosmo's Factory is the ultimate end-of-the-'60s singles album. Indeed, seven of the album's 11 tracks turn up on Chronicle, CCR's best hits collection. That said, Cosmo's is really a must-own in its entirety. No other album so adeptly laces together the various strands of the CCR sound. John Fogerty's ready-for-AM-radio knack surfaces in "Lookin' Out My Back Door" and "Up Around the Bend." His sober side is in evidence on "Who'll Stop the Rain" and "Long As I Can See the Light." And no white group of its time could cover black music with as much natural flair; check out the 11-minute cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" for proof. The band broke up two albums after the release of this, their apex LP, but Cosmo's Factory cemented CCR's standing as a great American band.

AMG Says:
Throughout 1969 and into 1970, CCR toured incessantly and recorded nearly as much. Appropriately, Cosmo's Factory's first single was the working band's anthem "Travelin' Band," a funny, piledriving rocker with a blaring horn section -- the first indication their sonic palette was broadening. Two more singles appeared prior to the album's release, backed by John Fogerty originals that rivaled the A-side or paled just slightly. When it came time to assemble a full album, Fogerty had only one original left, the claustrophobic, paranoid rocker "Ramble Tamble." Unlike some extended instrumentals, this was dramatic and had a direction -- a distinction made clear by the meandering jam that brings CCR's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" to 11 minutes. Even if it wanders, their take on the Marvin Gaye classic isn't unpleasant, and their faithful, exuberant takes on the Sun classics "Ooby Dooby" and "My Baby Left Me" are joyous tributes. Still, the heart of the album lays in those six fantastic songs released on singles. "Up Around the Bend" is a searing rocker, one of their best, balanced by the menacing murkiness of "Run Through the Jungle." "Who'll Stop the Rain"'s poignant melody and melancholy undertow has a counterpart in Fogerty's dope song, "Lookin' out My Back Door," a charming, bright shuffle, filled with dancing animals and domestic bliss - he had never been as sweet and silly as he is here. On "Long as I Can See the Light," the record's final song, he again finds solace in home, anchored by a soulful, laid-back groove. It hits a comforting, elegiac note, the perfect way to draw Cosmo's Factory -- an album made during stress and chaos, filled with raging rockers, covers, and intense jams -- to a close.

Ranked Highest By: Mike Schank (#3)

Amazon Link

Best fucking album.

#33.




BIPPP: French Synth Wave 1979-85
(300 Points, 2 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1. WC Contagion A Trois Dans Les
2. Ping Pong The Act
3. Je T'Ecris D'un Pays Les Visiteurs Du Soir
4. Terroriste Vox Dei
5. Touche Pas Mon Sexe Comix
6. Partie 1 Tgv
7. 20H25 CKC 3:09
8. Pretty Day Marie Moor
9. Game and Performance Deux
10. Polaroid/Roman/Photo Ruth
11. Aller Simple Vitor Hublot
12. Jour Se Leve Visible Le 3
13. Viol Af Dis Casino Music
14. Rainbow Man Busy P

Amazon.com Product Description: n/a

AMG Says:
The eternal impulse to collate, collect, and revisit never dies, though at times it can gain unexpected accents. And in a time when roughly recorded obscurities from non-Western countries tend to get such a focus, the idea of a collection of French post-punk efforts getting an album showcase might seem curious. But that's precisely what BIPPP is, collecting efforts recorded during the late '70s and early '80s from bands that were as in thrall to the possibilities of electronics in rock & roll as any number of counterparts in other countries. If much of the compilation will suggest more familiar Anglophonic analogues for many listeners, at its best there's a deft display of familiar elements at work -- the blend of spiraling, nervous guitar and keyboards on Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from Andy Summers' work in the Police to early New Order's tentative explorations. In keeping with the subtitle of the compilation, synths play a key role on nearly every track, and if things sometimes aren't much advanced beyond evident appreciation of the Human League, Gary Numan, Soft Cell, and of course Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode, hearing moments like the weird raindrop chimes in the background on "Je T'Ecris d'Un Pays" by Les Visiteurs du Soir and the clipped horn breaks on Ruth's "Polaroïd/Roman/Photo" leaven the mix. Full-on synth-only efforts are in the minority, but Comix's "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" and Visible's "Le Jour Se Leve" fly the flag. Hearing the singer for A Trois dans les WC gasp/whine out the title of "Contagion" may be a bit surprising but it's impossible to knock the bass-heavy, crisp, and weird glide of the music, while it's a bit amusing how the start of Marie Möör's "Pretty Day" uncannily resembles a slowed-down take on the Fall's "The Man Whose Head Expanded" -- but likely it was the same keyboard being used.

Ranked Highest By: Hewletts Daughter (#1)

Amazon Link

#32.




Elvis Costello & the Attractions - This Year's Model (28th Deluxe Edition)
(314 Points, 4 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. No Action
2. This Year's Girl
3. The Beat
4. Pump It Up
5. Little Triggers
6. You Belong To Me
7. Hand In Hand
8. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
9. Lip Service
10. Living In Paradise
11. Lipstick Vogue
12. Night Rally
13. Radio, Radio
14. Big Tears
15. Crawling To The USA
16. Tiny Steps
17. Running Out Of Angels
18. Green Shirt
19. Big Boys
20. Neat Neat Neat
21. Roadette Song
22. This Year's Girl
23. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

Disc 2
1. Pump It Up
2. Waiting For The End Of The World
3. No Action
4. Less Than Zero
5. The Beat
6. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
7. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
8. Hand In Hand
9. Little Triggers
10. Radio, Radio
11. You Belong To Me
12. Lipstick Vogue
13. Watching The Detectives
14. Mystery Dance
15. Miracle Man
16. Blame It On Cain
17. Chemistry Class

Amazon.com Product Description:
THIS YEAR'S MODEL is packaged with a 28-page booklet that includes rare photos and printed song lyrics. For his second album, Costello fine-tuned his aesthetic by abandoned the California studio cat accompanists of his debut for the more aggressive, quirky and very British Attractions, who would virtually define EC's sound over the next several years. Where MY AIM IS TRUE highlighted Costello's rootsy influences (the Band, etc.), THIS YEAR'S MODEL wholeheartedly embraces the "new wave" out-with-the-old mindset, favoring tightly-wound ferocity over back-porch-isms.

Irresistibly catchy, in a twitchy, neurotic, white-knuckled way, THIS YEAR'S MODEL is Costello at his edgiest. The classic "Pump It Up" pummels the listener with garage-band organ, pounding drums, and HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED-style ranting. "Radio, Radio" turned into something of an anti-authoritarian anthem for Costello. The snaky guitar and reggae-tinged drums of "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea" complement Costello's verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown vocal performance nicely. Come to think of it, so does nearly everything else here.

AMG Says:
For those keeping score, Universal's 2008 Deluxe Edition of This Year's Model is the third expanded reissue of Elvis Costello's classic 1978 album. Like its 2002 predecessor from Rhino, Universal's expanded edition is a double-disc set, sharing many, but not all, of the same bonus material from that previously released package. Rhino shuffled off all the bonus tracks to a separate second disc running 12 tracks, whereas Universal adds ten tracks to the 13-track album on the first disc, then presents a full concert -- recorded on February 28, 1978, at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. -- on the second disc. Of those 12 tracks from the 2002 edition, three of them have been excised -- excellent Capital Radio versions of "You Belong to Me" and "Radio, Radio" plus a BBC version of "Stranger in the House" -- while "Tiny Steps," which was included on the 2002 Rhino expansion of Armed Forces, was added. All in all, a fair trade -- quite frankly, the three songs aren't missed as much as Costello's terrific liner notes; without them, the packaging of this Deluxe Edition feels a bit bare-bones -- and the concert on the second disc, while not as memorably unhinged as the legendary Live at the El Mocambo recorded less than a week after this gig, is still invigorating and worthwhile listening for hardcore Costello fans. Of course, the question is whether those hardcore fans are willing to purchase this album for the fourth or fifth time just to hear a good concert, as all the really essential bonus material was on both the Rhino disc and the previous Ryko/Demon reissue of the '90s. Those who have the budget and inclination will surely be pleased by this set, but any fans who decide to sit this out either on matters of budget or principal can rest assured that they're not missing something monumental.

Ranked Highest By: RabbiSchmoiley (#4)

Amazon Link

#31.




The Smiths - The Sound of The Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths
(318 Points, 4 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Hand In Glove
2. This Charming Man
3. What Difference Does It Make(Peel Session Version)
4. Still III
5. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
6. William, It Was Really Nothing
7. How Soon Is Now?
8. Nowhere Fast
9. Shakespeare's Sister
10. Barbarism Begins At Home
11. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
12. The Headmaster Ritual
13. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
14. Bigmouth Strikes Again
15. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
16. Panic
17. Ask
18. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby
19. Shoplifters Of The World Unite
20. Sheila Take A Bow
21. Girlfriend In A Coma
22. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
23. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

Disc: 2
1. Jeane
2. Handsome Devil (Live)
3. This Charming Man (New York vocal)
4. Wonderful Woman
5. Back To The Old House
6. These Things Take Time
7. Girl Afraid
8. Please, Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
9. Stretch Out And Wait
10. Oscillate Wildly
11. Meat Is Murder (Live in Oxford)
12. Asleep
13. Money Changes Everything
14. The Queen Is Dead
15. Vicar In A Tutu
16. Cemetry Gates
17. Half A Person
18. Sweet And Tender Hooligan
19. I Keep Mine Hidden
20. Pretty Girls Make Graves(Troy Tate version)
21. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
22. What's The World (Live in Glasgow)
23. London (live in London)

Amazon.com Product Description:
Deluxe 2 CD version, with disc 2 containing choice B sides, live cuts, and rarities. The Smiths formed in Manchester in 1982 and quickly rose to become the quintessential British indie rock band of their day. Powered by the collaboration between lead singer and lyricist Morrissey and lead guitarist and co-songwriter Johnny Marr, their sound had a literary and musical depth that was complex, emotional and often controversial-at the same time, it rang with The Smiths' unique twist on timeless melodic pop sensibilities. On Rhino's new compilation, the group's biggest hits and most important tracks are represented.

AMG Says:
Depending on your count, The Sound of the Smiths is the third or fourth posthumous Smiths compilation -- a number that may be a bit excessive considering the group's rather concise catalog, containing just four studio albums and singles rounded up on three singles compilations (and two of those covered the same essential territory, too). That's a lot of repetition but whether it's taken in either its single-disc or double-disc deluxe editions, The Sound of the Smiths is the best of these posthumous overviews. The single-disc -- which is the first disc of the deluxe set -- is the hits disc, containing every cut from the 18-track 1995 compilation Singles and expanding it with five cuts all dating from the mid-'80s: "Still Ill," "Nowhere Fast," "Barbarism Begins at Home," "The Headmaster Ritual" and "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby." As a Smiths-basics goes, it's first-rate, an introduction and summary that's compulsively listenable. The second disc on the deluxe The Sound of the Smiths splits the difference between a rarities compilation and a "more of the best" collection of album tracks, rounding up non-LP singles and B-sides like "Jeane," "Wonderful Woman," "Money Changes Everything," and the New York Vocal version of "This Charming Man," live versions of "Handsome Devil," "Meat is Murder," "What's the World?" and "London," the Troy Tate demo of "Pretty Girls make Graves," and a bunch of great Smiths songs including a hefty chunk of The Queen Is Dead. It falls short of being the long-awaited collection of Smiths rarities, the absence of which remains a mystery, but it's the best stab at one to date and a pretty entertaining listen in its own right. [A deluxe edition was also released.]

Ranked Highest By: Waterloo (#3)

Amazon Link

#30.




eels - Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006
(320 Points, 2 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Novocaine For The Soul (Live From Hell)
2. Fucker
3. My Beloved Monster (Live From Tennessee)
4. Dog's Life
5. Susan's Apartment
6. Manchester Girl (BBC)
7. Flower (BBC)
8. My Beloved Mad Monster Party (BBC)
9. Animal
10. Stepmother
11. Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas
12. Your Lucky Day In Hell (Michael Simpson Remix)*
13. Altar Boy
14. Novocaine For The Soul (Moog Cookbook Remix)
15. If I Was Your Girlfriend (Live)*
16. Bad News
17. Funeral Parlor
18. Hospital Food (BBC)
19. Open The Door (BBC)
20. Birdgirl On A Cell Phone
21. Vice President Fruitley
22. My Beloved Monstrosity
23. Dark End Of The Street (Live)*
24. The Cheater's Guide To Your Heart (Live)*
25. Useless Trinkets*

Disc: 2
1. Mr. E's Beautiful Remix
2. Souljacker Part I (Alternate Version)*
3. Dog Faced Boy (Alternate Version)*
4. Jennifer Eccles
5. Rotten World Blues
6. Can't Help Falling In Love
7. Christmas Is Going To The Dogs
8. Mighty Fine Blues
9. Eyes Down
10. Skywriting
11. Taking A Bath In Rust
12. Estranged Friends*
13. Her
14. Waltz Of The Naked Clowns
15. I Like Birds (Live)*
16. Sad Foot Sign
17. Living Life
18. The Bright Side
19. After The Operation
20. Jelly Dancers
21. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Live At Town Hall)
22. Mr. E's Beautiful Blues (Live At Town Hall)
23. I Want To Protect You*
24. I Put A Spell On You (Live)*
25. Saw A Ufo*

Disc: 3 (DVD)
1. Saturday Morning
2. Eyes Down
3. My Beloved Monster
4. A Magic World
5. Not Ready Yet
6. Souljacker part I*previously unreleased

Amazon.com Product Description:
Highlights within the 50 CD tracks EELS USELESS TRINKETS: B-SIDES, SOUNDTRACKS, RARITIES AND UNRELEASED 1996-2006 are longtime concert favorite "Living Life" fromthe Daniel Johnston tribute album, the previously unreleased 2006 cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You" and other covers including James Carr's "Dark End of The Street" and Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend." USELESS TRINKETS also includes a large handful of BBC performances, unique live versions of "Novocaine For The Soul" and "My Beloved Monster," tracks from films - The End Of Violence, Holes, Levity and How The Grinch Stole Christmas andmany previously unreleased tracks including the original collections title track which frontman Everett performs backed by a 28 piece orchestra. The DVD features six performances fromthe EELS'Lollapalooza 2006 performance, including a gospel rave-up take on "My Beloved Monster" and a high octane rumble through "Souljacker part I."

AMG Says:
Being released on the same day as the companion piece to the CD/DVD package Meet the Eels: Essential Eels, Vol. 1, Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006 is a true delight for those who have followed the unwieldy, elliptical career of Mark Oliver Everett (aka "E"), who has employed more musicians than probably even he can count under the Eels moniker. There is a DVD in this triple-disc set. It contains the band's 2006 performance at Lollapalooza. It's a nice adage, the show was fine, but it's almost an afterthought for anyone who digs into these cuts with anything approaching earnestness.

First off, there are 50 of them spread over two discs. From the beginning E expresses his own ambivalence with a "Live from Hell" version of "Novocaine for the Soul." How do we know? The opening annotation in the liner notes simply states: "When you have a hit song, you're expected to play it every single day of your life. Good luck not going crazy." The performance reflects that truth. But it is followed immediately by the delightfully poignant, I-love-you-I-hate-you ditty of truth called "Fucker," (according to his notes, it was his girlfriend's nickname for him). There isn't anyone who hasn't been involved deeply with someone who doesn't get every word of this simple construction. "Dog's Life," written in a 30-minute Jon Brion-forced basement time-out for E is full of not only wonder-words, but strings, loopy textures, and sparse guitars. E confesses he has no idea if it was even recorded in Tennessee. Of course the soundtrack tunes and rarities are awfully welcome — especially now, before the Eels' single, EP, and movie tunes shelf gets any larger. But E's sense of pulling covers out of his hat walks the same knife-edged push and pull between hell and something less than hell — purgatory maybe? It adds immeasurably to what's here. The sense of the abject in "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You," accompanied only by his piano, is the opposite of the Elvis version. Elvis begs as a youth begs, E sings into the void of an empty apartment knowing that this confession isn't ever going to be heard because he's already tried that. The reading of the Hollies' "Jennifer Eccles," has a beautiful Chamberlain played by Brion and a very skeletal Gretsch played by the same. Where the Hollies sang this song with its requisite teen confidence, E's comes from the hall of memory before it fades into the ether. The line "I know that Jennifer Eccles/Is going to follow me there..." takes on a chilling significance. The version of "Dark End of the Street" (a Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham soul classic, is performed by everybody but it still belongs to James Carr) has a mournful horn section — and perhaps it's Lisa Germano on the backing vocal. Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend" is treated with a sublime post grunge feedback anti-funkiness to begin, but E nails the tune in his way. And the version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You" simply has to be heard to be believed; if you haven't already heard it, E sounds like a man possessed with a band out to tear itself apart.. In addition are both sides of the "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" remix — the controversy has finally been resolved: "Rotten World Blues" is only on the U.S. version of the disc, kinda making up for the fact that the remix of "Souljacker" was only included in the U.K. edition.

But there's more. There are alternate readings of album cuts which prove to be just that, alternates without any true revelations, though they are perfectly fitting in this context.

The booklet is bursting at the seams with craziness, memorabilia, weird observations written on hotel room stationary, annotated stoicisms, photographs galore, and some hilarious asides. This is, despite its incredible excess, an imperfect but better blueprint for how these kinds of collection should be done. What will attract people is that rather than try to paste it all together in a box set, giving people who a load of stuff they already have, you can do a basic hits collection with a bonus DVD, providing it contains all the videos (are you listening, Tom Waits? Where the hell is yours?). Then, especially for the fanatics, plug in something to cover most if not all of the holes in the tracks, replace bootleg versions, and add an unreleased concert to the mix to make it irresistible. It's still marketing, but at least it's semi-honest. The Essential Eels collection contained those videos for the sake of a kind of complete-ism (and to get the hardcore faithful to buy both sets). It's understandable but utterly questionable. Trinkets would have been perfect had it contained those videos as well as the concert on a single DVD — there was room. But as it is, it's not to be missed for having the marginal asides collected so handsomely and carefully.

Ranked Highest By: Paul, UselessRocker(#2)

Amazon Link

#29.




Rocket From The Crypt - All Systems Go, Vol. 3
(324 Points, 3 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1 Falling Down Stairs 2:00
2 Total Bummer 3:00
3 Chariots on Fire 2:36
4 Little Shaver 3:50
5 Canyon Killer 1:53
6 Don't Wanna Be Touched 3:03
7 Orange County 2:56
8 Pictures of Lenny 1:32
9 Man Down 0:34
10 Summer Survivor 2:57
11 Lick Is the New 13 2:37
12 Tiger Mask (Instro) 2:10
13 When in Rome (Do the Jerk) 4:02
14 Dick on a Dog 3:10
15 Dynamite! 2:50
16 Due Warning 2:54
17 The Whip 2:50
18 Come on Everybody 1:17
19 No Way at All 1:33
20 This Way Out 2:48

Amazon.com Product Description:
Rocket From The Crypt return with the third CD in their All Systems Go series. The CD contains lost master 8 track demo recordings, including many available for the first time. 20 tracks in all.

AMG Says: n/a

Ranked Highest By: no magnets (#1)

Amazon Link

#28.




The Replacements - Let It Be (Expanded Edition)
(327 Points, 5 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. I Will Dare
2. Favorite Thing
3. We're Comin' Out
4. Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out
5. Androgynous
6. Black Diamond
7. Unsatisfied
8. Seen Your Video
9. Gary's Got a Boner
10. Sixteen Blue
11. Answering Machine
12. 20th Century Boy
13. Perfectly Lethal
14. Temptation Eyes
15. Answering Machine
16. Heartbeat -- It's a Lovebeat
17. Sixteen Blue

Amazon.com Product Description: n/a

AMG Says:
Let It Be looms large among '80s rock albums, generally regarded as one of the greatest records of the decade. So large is its legend and so universal its acclaim that all the praise tends to give the impression that the Replacements' fourth album was designed as a major statement, intended to be something important when its genius, like so many things involving the 'Mats, feels accidental. Compared to other underground landmarks from 1984, Let It Be feels small scale, as it lacks the grand, sprawling ambition of the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime or the dramatic intensity of Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade, or if the other side of the Atlantic is taken into equation, the clean sense of purpose of The Smiths. Nothing about Let It Be is clean; it's all a ragged mess, careening wildly from dirty jokes to wounded ballads, from utter throwaways to songs haunting in their power. Unlike other classics, Let It Be needs those throwaways -- that Kiss cover, those songs about Tommy getting his tonsils out and Gary's boner, that rant about phony rock & roll -- to lighten the mood and give the album its breathless pacing, but also because without these asides, the album wouldn't be true to the Replacements, who never separated high and low culture, who celebrated pure junk and reluctantly bared their soul. This blend of bluster and vulnerability is why the Replacements were perhaps the most beloved band of their era, as they captured all the chaos and confusion of coming of age in the midst of Reaganomics, and Let It Be is nothing if not a coming-of-age album, perched precisely between adolescence and adulthood. There's just enough angst and tastelessness to have the album speak to teenagers of all generations and just enough complicated emotion to make this music resonate with listeners long past those awkward years, whether they grew up with this album or not.

All this works because there is an utter lack of affect in Paul Westerberg's songs and unrestrained glee in the Replacements' roar. Sure, Let It Be has moments where the thunder rolls away and Westerberg is alone, playing "Androgynous" on a piano and howling about having to say good night to an answering machine, but they flow naturally from the band's furious rock & roll, particularly because the raw, unsettled "Unsatisfied" acts as a bridge between these two extremes. But if Let It Be was all angst, it wouldn't have captured so many hearts in the '80s, becoming a virtual soundtrack to the decade for so many listeners, or continue to snag in new fans years later. Unlike so many teenage post-punk records, this doesn't dwell on the pain; it ramps up the jokes and, better still, offers a sense of endless possibilities, especially on the opening pair of "I Will Dare" and "Favorite Thing," two songs where it feels as if the world opened up because of these songs. And that sense of thrilling adventure isn't just due to Westerberg; it's due to the 'Mats as a band, who have never sounded as ferocious and determined as they do here. Just a year earlier, they were playing almost everything for laughs on Hootenanny and just a year later a major-label contract helped pull all their sloppiness into focus on Tim, but here Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson's rhythms are breathlessly exciting and Bob Stinson's guitar wails as if nothing could ever go wrong. Of course, plenty went wrong for the Replacements not too much further down the road, but here they were fully alive as a band, living gloriously in the moment, a fleeting moment when anything and everything seems possible, and that moment still bursts to life whenever Let It Be is played. [Rhino's 2008 reissue of Let It Be is bolstered by six bonus tracks: a heavy cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" that seems focused compared to the shambolic covers of the Grass Roots' "Temptation Eyes" and the DeFranco Family's "Heartbeat -- It's a Lovebeat," the session outtake of "Perfectly Lethal," a home demo of "Answering Machine," and an alternate of "Sixteen Blue" with different lyrics.]

Ranked Highest By: Mike Schank (#5)

Amazon Link

#27.




U2 - Boy (Expanded and Remastered)
(340 Points, 4 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. I Will Follow
2. Twilight
3. An Cat Dubh
4. Into The Heart
5. Out Of Control
6. Stories For Boys
7. The Ocean
8. A Day Without Me
9. Another Time, Another Place
10. The Electric Co.
11. Shadows And Tall Trees

Disc: 2
1. I Will Follow (Previously Unreleased Mix)
2. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
3. Touch
4. Speed Of Life (Previously Unreleased Track)
5. Saturday Night (Previously Unreleased Track)
6. Things To Make And Do
7. Out Of Control
8. Boy-Girl
9. Stories For Boys
10. Another Day
11. Twilight
12. Boy-Girl (Live at The Marquee, London)
13. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (Live at The Marquee, London - Previously Unreleased Version)
14. Cartoon World (Live at The National Stadium, Dublin - Previously Unreleased Track)

Amazon.com Product Description:
A standard CD and a bonus CD. Bonus CD includes b-sides, live tracks and rarities. Also includes a 32 page booklet with previously unseen photos, full lyrics, new liner notes by Paul Morley, and explanatory notes on the bonus material by The Edge.

AMG Says:
U2's earliest recordings -- their debut EP U2 Three, several non-LP singles and B-sides -- haven't exactly been buried, but they have been orphaned, never seeing an official reissue until they popped up double-disc deluxe reissues of 1980's Boy, 1981's October, and 1983's War in 2008. Prior to this, these stray tracks did leak out on the iTunes exclusive release The Complete U2 (tied into the 2004 release of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, discontinued by the time these reissues showed up), but apart from "Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl" -- which surfaced on the B-sides compilation that was added as a second disc to deluxe editions of 1998's The Best of 1980-1990 -- they never appeared on CD. So, this group of reissues is a major archival release, as it unveils the rarest released recordings from one of the world's biggest bands, music that should be available for historical reasons even if it's not very good -- which often it is not, at least not on the bonus disc of Boy. On these 14 tracks, U2 sound impossibly green, working out their fetish for Factory bands while occasionally taking a stab at the barbed punk of the Undertones or Buzzcocks, as on the coiled "Boy/Girl." Rhythms are leaden, the Edge has yet to learn how to paint with his effects, Bono yelps far too often, and they not only lack the majesty that is such a key part of their mystique, they sound slack even on the live tracks from a September 1980 show at the Marquee in London (including the previously unreleased "Cartoon World"). These live tracks are admittedly the closest this music gets to kinetic, but that's not for lack of trying. U2 did attempt to really rock, as on the flatly bizarre unreleased "Saturday Night," which plays like un-ironic arena rock and shows that this is a band that's always been better with big ideas than with small ones. Here, they were surely striving for something huge, but they had little idea of how to execute their ideas. Based on these rarities -- which include all of their first EP, U2 Three, distinguished by different early versions of "Out of Control" and "Stories for Boys"; the B-side "Twilight" (different from the LP version); and both sides of the "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" single, including the flip "Touch" -- it's hard to believe that this quartet could ever conquer the world, but that's exactly why they're worth hearing: these 14 tracks provide a useful lesson that sometimes early recordings aren't harbingers of what's to come.

Ranked Highest By: Pookie (#3)

Amazon Link

This Year's Model is the 30th Anniversary edition, 28th Deluxe Edition was my joke on how many re-releases it has had.

#26.




David Bowie - Live in Santa Monica '72
(370 Points, 5 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. Hang on to Yourself
2. Ziggy Stardust
3. Changes
4. The Supermen
5. Life on Mars?
6. Five Years
7. Space Oddity
8. Andy Warhol
9. My Death - David Bowie, Blau, Eric
10. The Width of a Circle
11. Queen Bitch
12. Moonage Daydream
13. John, I'm Only Dancing
14. Waiting for the Man - David Bowie, Reed, Lou
15. The Jean Genie
16. Suffragette City
17. Rock 'N' Roll Suicide

Amazon.com Product Description:
In 1972, David Bowie set out on his first US tour. He'd recently introduced the world to his Ziggy Stardust persona with his top 5 album 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' and had completed a hugely successful UK tour. The Santa Monica concert, David's first live US radio broadcast, was aired live on KMET in L.A. Over the last 36 years this historic recording has only been occasionally available as a bootleg. For many, ownership of this concert was regarded as a true test of being a 'proper Bowie fan'. This powerful, galvanizing show allows a more than 70 minute glimpse into the earliest nationwide live radio exposure granted David and the Spiders. The set list is compiled primarily from the 'Hunky Dory' and 'Ziggy Stardust' albums and features two covers, Jacques Brel's "My Death" and the Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man," alongside the awesome power of 'The Man Who Sold The World' centrepiece "The Width Of A Circle" (this version is a ten and a half minute sonic assault) and an 'Aladdin Sane' previewing "The Jean Genie." The set list is also quite different from the Ziggy terminating 'Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture Soundtrack. Accompanying David was The Spiders From Mars: Mick Ronson - guitar, vocals, Trevor Bolder - bass, Mick "Woody" Woodmansey - drums and Mike Garson - piano. This is David Bowie at the pinnacle of his creative power - in 1981 NME critics called it, "(quite simply) ... the performer's, and one of rock's, best ever bootlegs". The CD will be released as a limited edition with special packaging featuring shots taken at the actual gig for the first time. The double LP will be a heavyweight vinyl one off run. David says:- "I can tell that I'm totally into being Ziggy by this stage of our touring. It's no longer an act; I am him. This would be around the tenth American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We train wreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn't know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us but overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best."

AMG Says:
Among Bowie aficionados, the live recording from the Santa Monica Civic Center in 1972 ranks as perhaps the best document of the Spiders from Mars at their peak, certainly outranking the Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture soundtrack, which may have documented the band's fabled final gig, but didn't capture the band at full flight. This recording -- frequently bootlegged, often popping up on semi-official releases, finally released officially by EMI in 2008 -- does just that. Here, the Spiders sound otherworldly, lean yet monstrous, simple and lethal on "Hang on to Yourself" but majestic and dramatic on a ten-minute "The Width of a Circle," flipping a hat to Jacques Brel via Scott Walker on "My Death," then stripping down such grandiose Hunky Dory tunes as "Life on Mars?" to the essentials. The grand thing about Live in Santa Monica '72 is that it doesn't feel like a special gig: it may have been Bowie's first American radio broadcast, but that's secondary to how it feels like a snapshot of the band during its prime. It's tantalizing to think that this is just how the band was in 1972 and that there may be plenty of other great performances never recorded. What's special about this is that a night like this was indeed captured -- and with each passing year this seems more and more like the best Bowie live album.

Ranked Highest By: SonicAlligator (#5)

Amazon Link

#25.




Ween - At The Cat's Cradle, 1992
(400 Points, 3 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1. Big Jilm
2. Never Squeal on th' Pusher
3. Captain Fantasy
4. Tick
5. Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese
6. Cover It with Gas and Set It on Fire
7. The Goin' Gets Tough from the Getgo
8. Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)
9. Nan
10. Marble Tulip Juicy Tree
11. Ode to Rene
12. Mango Woman
13. El Camino
14. Demon Sweat
15. You Fucked Up
16. Old Queen Cole
17. Papa Zit
18. Buckingham Green
19. Birthday Boy
20. Fat Lenny
21. Reggaejunkiejew

Amazon.com Product Description: n/a

AMG Says:
There are plenty of official Ween live albums in the band's catalog, but none captured the early years when Dean and Gene toured on their own -- supported only by a DAT machine -- until At the Cat's Cradle, 1992 appeared at the close of 2008. During those years, the duo would blow through roughly 20 songs in an hour and it was possible for the band to keep that pace because the DAT allowed no room for improvisation: when the tape was done, the song was done. This could make for great or terrible shows but often the differences were subtle, depending on the mood of either the crowd or the bandmembers themselves rather than changes in the set list, because Dean and Gene were tied to that DAT machine. Many die-hard fans still look upon this time quite fondly -- some are so set in their ways that they think this is the peak of the band -- but upon listening to At the Cat's Cradle it becomes clear why Ween started touring with a full band a couple of years later: compared to the wild, freewheeling latter-day live albums, this is a bit constrained. Of course, those limits are part of the charm of this set, too, as Ween did a lot with very little: they could sound gnarled and ugly, as they do on "Cover It with Gas and Set It on Fire," then turn it around and be stiffly funky on "The Goin' Gets Tough from the Getgo." Some of the songs from GodWeenSatan and The Pod actually sound fuller here on-stage -- that's especially true of harder rockers like "Captain Fantasy" and "You Fucked Up" -- but the Pure Guava selections (along with "Buckingham Green," which wouldn't surface on a studio album for another five years) do suggest that they need a little more muscle to do the material justice. But At the Cat's Cradle is more than just a curio because it does capture Ween at the crossroads: it has the weird brown sound of their earliest years but it also illustrates why they had to leave it behind as well. [At the Cat's Cradle, 1992 also contains a 17-track DVD of live performances from Ween in 1992.]

Ranked Highest By: dicorice (#1)

Amazon Link

Fuck yeah.

Aw, I should've taken the time to do this. That should be number one.

#24.




Otis Redding - Live in London and Paris
(420 Points, 4 Votes)

Tracklist:
London
1 Introduction
2 Respect
3 My Girl
4 Shake
5 Day Tripper
6 Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
7 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
8 Try a Little Tenderness

Paris
9 Introduction
10 Respect
11 I Can't Turn You Loose
12 I've Been Loving You Too Long
13 My Girl
14 Shake
15 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
16 Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
17 These Arms of Mine
18 Day Tripper
19 Try a Little Tenderness

Amazon.com Product Description:
Recorded at the Finsbury Park Astoria in London on March 17th 1967 and at the Olympia in Paris on March 21st 1967. Tracklisting London: Introduction, Respect, My girl, Shake, Day tripper, Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa (sad song),(I can't get no) Satisfaction, Try a little tenderness. Tracklisting Paris: Introduction, Respect, I can't turn you loose, I've been loving you too long, My girl, Shake, (I can"t get no) satisfaction, Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa (sad song), These arms of mine, Day tripper, Try a little tenderness. Stax. 2008.

AMG Says:
When the Love Generation (which, truthfully, did no better with that emotion than any other generation) got its first real glimpse of soul giant Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 backed by Booker T. & the MG's, a powerhouse band if there ever were one, they saw love with a capital L, because Redding sang love songs like the world was about to end, wringing the emotion out of them like a soulful, urgent hurricane. He was, simply put, an unstoppable force on-stage, taking all the energy of gospel and upping the ante until it seemed like the very sky itself was about to fly off into space from the very power of it. Redding was soul, and soul in every fiber of his being. The two sets included here, which predate the Monterey performance by a couple of months, were recorded in London (March 17) and Paris (March 21) on the Stax/Volt package tour of Europe in 1967, and they just might be even more astounding (particularly the Paris night) than the Monterey set. Working again with the MG's, with the horns of the Mar-Keys along for extra kick, Redding burns the house down in both of these sets, wringing every last bit of energy out of Sam Cooke's "Shake" until it seems the universe is about to come off its hinges, turning "Try a Little Tenderness" into a silken caress, making "I've Been Loving You Too Long" into an anthem for the hopeless arc of love, and taking "Day Tripper" to places the Beatles could only dream about, all with the MG's and the Mar-Keys churning behind him like a huge, funky turbine. This was Stax soul in all its ragged, vital glory. The original tapes of these sets (Atlantic issued an LP of the London show in 1967) have been reassembled and restored for this release, and the end result is a stunning reminder of what a giant Redding was. You want to know about love? Drop this in your player.

Ranked Highest By: vurt, RabbiSchmoiley (#3)

Amazon Link

I bought all of the CCR re-releases. Easily the best music purchases I made in '08.

#23.




Studio - Yearbook 2
(425 Points, 3 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1. Brown Piano (Remake by Studio) A Mountain Of One
2. Impossible (Possible Version by Studio) Shout Out Louds
3. Turn The Radio Off (Remake by Studio) Love Is All
4. Room Without A Key (Version by Studio) The Rubies
5. Escape From Chinatown (Version by Studio) Brennan Green
6. 2 Hearts (Version by Studio) Kylie
7. Love On A Real Train (Version by Studio) Williams

Amazon.com Product Description:
Following 2007's critically-acclaimed West Coast album, Gothenburg, Sweden's Studio (Dan Lissvik, Rasmus Hägg) presents Yearbook 2. This is THE collection of Studio's celebrated Balearic-dub-disco remixes of Kylie Minogue, Williams, A Mountain Of One, etc., now available on CD. These are highly sought-after remixes compiled together from hard-to-get vinyl releases. Studio has a solid fan-base after West Coast made Rough Trade's top 10 albums of 2007 list. Yearbook 2 further establishes Studio as future greats, holed up in a hidden engineering room somewhere not far away from David Mancuso's Loft, Nassau's Compass Point, Manchester's Hacienda and DJ Harvey's Love Hotel. Other remixes of work by Shout Out Louds, Love Is All, Rubies, and Brennan Green.

AMG Says: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Bobzilla (#1)

Amazon Link

#22.




The Clash - Live at Shea Stadium
(425 Points, 6 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. London Calling
2. Police On My Back
3. The Guns of Brixton
4. Tommy Gun
5. Magnificent 7
6. Armagideon Time
7. Magnificent 7 (Return)
8. Rock The Casbah
9. Train In Vain
10. Career Opportunities
11. Spanish Bombs
12. Clampdown
13. English Civil War
14. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
15. I Fought The Law

Amazon.com Product Description:
Recorded at New York's Shea Stadium in 1982, Live at Shea Stadium captures the band at the peak of its powers and on devastating form. Bristling with energy and attitude, Live at Shea Stadium is destined to feature alongside James Brown at the Apollo, The Who at Leeds and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison as one of the greatest live recordings of all time!

The Clash, opening for The Who on their farewell tour of the US, played two nights at the legendary Shea Stadium (October 12th and 13th of 1982). Despite being the support act, the New York Post reported "there were as many Clash fans on those nights as Who fans."

AMG Says:
In Clash lore, the band's stint as the opening act for the Who's farewell tour in 1982 is where the band had stardom in its hand and dropped it on the floor. That's how Joe Strummer phrased it in retrospect, but in 1982 the pairing was seen as a rock cultural clash, with the Who's audience bristling at the punks, and the punks not quite being comfortable operating on a larger scale -- a suspicion somewhat proven by the band's implosion within months of the Shea Stadium gig. Given all the stories about how poorly received this tour with the Who was -- that the Clash were routinely greeted by boos as they hopped from stadium to stadium across the U.S. -- it comes as a mild surprise that this unearthed recording of the band's opening set at Shea Stadium isn't bad at all. There were some signs prior to this 2008 archival release that this particular gig was pretty good -- some of the cuts surfaced on the posthumous live 1999 comp From Here to Eternity and the video to "Should I Stay or Should I Go" came from this gig -- but all the decades of disastrous myths help turn Live at Shea Stadium into a pleasant surprise. That doesn't mean that this is a definitive portrait of the Clash live, or even that it captures the band at their best, but it's fascinating to hear how they pitched their set to the Who's audience, only slowing down for the reggae of "Armagideon Time" and "The Guns of Brixton," but otherwise sticking with high-octane, breathlessly paced rock & roll -- the kind of set designed to placate a stadium full of classic rock fans, or at least keep them buying beer instead of throwing it. As a historical document, it's a worthy one. It not only illustrates that the Clash did turn in some strong performances on this often disaster-plagued tour, but it gives us the first officially released Clash concert instead of the re-creation of From Here to Eternity. And if it's not all terrific -- strangely, the Combat Rock songs can sometimes sound stiff, particularly "Rock the Casbah" -- when the group clicks, as they do on a closing stretch that includes "Career Opportunities," "Clampdown," "Should I Stay or Should I Go," and a furious "I Fought the Law," they sound like the greatest band on earth and a sure bet to have blown the Who off the stage.

Ranked Highest By: The Gram (#4)

Amazon Link

I forgot to vote for that Studio album. I thought that it was a studio album, but by the time I found out it was for the compilations, I had already submitted my list. Good list so far though. Bowie should be higher though.

#21.




The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me (Expanded Edition)
(428 Points, 5 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. I.O.U.
2. Alex Chilton
3. I Don't Know
4. Nightclub Jitters
5. The Ledge
6. Never Mind
7. Valentine
8. Shooting Dirty Pool
9. Red Red Wine
10. Skyway
11. Can't Hardly Wait
12. Birthday Gal
13. Valentine
14. Bundle Up
15. Photo
16. Election Day
17. Alex Chilton
18. Kick It In
19. Route 66
20. Tossin' n' Turnin'
21. Can't Hardly Wait
22. Cool Water

Amazon.com Product Description:
2008 remastered and expanded edition with bonus tracks of The Replacements' fifth album, Pleased To Meet Me, which was released in 1987. The singles from the album were "Can't Hardly Wait" (which was the inspiration for the title of a movie), as well as "Alex Chilton" and "The Ledge" (the video for which was banned from airplay on MTV due to its lyrical content about suicide). The album peaked at #131 on the Billboard Music Chart's Top 200. The album's cover art mocks the band's transition from young punks to successful musicians with a major record deal, depicting a handshake between one person clad in a suit, starched white shirt, glitzy watch and diamond ring and the other wearing a ripped workshirt. The album to some degree maintains the style of the previous album, and major label debut, Tim.

AMG Says:
All things considered, Tim was an easy transition to the majors for the Replacements, at least as far as the making of the album goes: things went wrong after the release, as the band botched big showcases like its Saturday Night Live spot, leading up to the dismissal of Bob Stinson at the conclusion of the Tim tour. The dust hadn't settled when the 'Mats headed down to Memphis to record Pleased to Meet Me with producer Jim Dickinson at Ardent Studios -- or to phrase it in Alex Chilton-speak, to record with Big Star's 3rd producer at the studio where all three Big Star albums were made. All this fanboy worship perhaps naturally led to a full-blown mash note to Paul Westerberg's idol, who also turned up to play a couple of licks on a finally finished "Can't Hardly Wait," which initially was attempted with Chilton as a producer before Tim, but Pleased to Meet Me didn't resemble either the crystalline pop of #1 Record or the narcissistic black hole of 3rd. Dickinson gave the Replacements a full-blooded, muscular production, cranking up guitars, hauling out an upright bass for Tommy Stinson, and bringing in horns -- even strings -- to flesh out Westerberg's songs. This was the Replacements as professionals and, ever the contrarians, they strained against it -- albeit only sporadically and underneath the surface -- with Westerberg's outsider stance calcifying into the invigorating bitterness of "I.O.U." and "I Don't Know." These two proto-slacker anti-anthems -- quite the inverse of the call to arms of "Bastards of Young" and "Left of the Dial" -- are the only times the group's self-sabotage surfaces here, as the bandmembers pretty much give themselves over to Dickinson's studio savvy, leading to the ominous pulse of "The Ledge" and the brilliant, shining power pop of "Never Mind," "Alex Chilton," and "Valentine," along with such left-field twists as the mock jazz of "Nightclub Jitters." This kind of colorful, almost cinematic production -- even the greasy rocker "Shooting Dirty Pool" is enhanced by the sound of breaking glass -- was unheard of on a Replacements record and it all came to a head on "Can't Hardly Wait," which was glossed over with swelling strings and the Memphis Horns.

All these fancy accoutrements would seem like the antithesis of the Replacements' spirit, but Dickinson's grand production merely blows the 'Mats up to epic scale, leaving their essence intact: Westerberg even gets a lovely fragile acoustic moment in "Skyway" and there are down-and-dirty rockers like "Shooting Dirty Pool" and "Red Red Wine" that feel like throwaways, but are necessary to the spirit of the record. The Replacements never sounded better with a bigger production than they did on Pleased to Meet Me, so it's hard not to see it as the one that got away, the record that should have been the breakthrough, especially in the year when fellow American underground rockers R.E.M. leaped into the Top Ten (but, it's also true that "The Ledge" may not have been the best single choice, as songs about suicides don't often provide entry into the Top 40). Then again, the Replacements don't make sense as a success story, so the failure of the gleaming, glistening Pleased to Meet Me winds up making its polish kind of heart-rending. As it turns out, this was the last time they could still shoot for the stars and seem like their scrappy selves and, in many ways, it was the last true Replacements album. [Rhino's 2008 deluxe reissue of Pleased to Meet Me has a wealth of 11 bonus tracks, almost all of them excellent. First, there is a quartet of studio demos recorded just after Bob Stinson was let go: "Birthday Gal," a somewhat brokenhearted love song whose chorus later partially resurfaced on "Merry Go Round"; an early version of "Valentine," containing a bridge that was excised from the finished version; the terrific "Bundle Up," which harks back to early-'60s novelty rockers; and finally, "Photo," an urgent, romantic rocker that deserved to go further than a demo. Then there are the three B-sides to "The Ledge": the slow heavy blues "Election Day" and a run-through of "Route 66" eclipsed by a careening "Tossin' n' Turnin'." There are two alternate takes -- a slightly rougher "Alex Chilton" and another version of "Can't Hardly Wait" with no overdubs and slightly different lyrics -- and a demo of the sprightly unreleased pop tune "Kick It In." Finally, there's a pleasantly ambling version of "Cool Water," the first Chris Mars lead vocal that was originally released as the B-side of "Can't Hardly Wait."]

Ranked Highest By: Slap Nutz (#2)

Amazon Link

AOY*KYGHJKHJAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAARRRRRRGSGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

#20.




African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds
(486 Points, 4 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1. Mi Kple Dogbekpo
2. Mi Ma Kpe Dji - Picoby Band d'Abomey
3. It's a Vanity - Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo
4. Se Na Min - el Rego et Ses Commandos
5. Leki Santchi
6. Gbeti Madjro - Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey
7. Wait for Me - Roger Damawuzan
8. Vinon So Minsou
9. Ye Nan Lon An - Orchestre Super Jheevs des Paillotes
10. Djanfa Magni
11. Houiou Djin Nan Zon Aklumon - Discafric Band
12. Congolaise Benin Ye - le Super Borgou de Parakou
13. Ou C'est Lui ou C'est Moi - Vincent Ahehehinnou
14. Oya Ka Jojo - Les Volcans De la Capital

Amazon.com Product Description: n/a

AMG Says:
The subtitle here, intriguing as it is, isn't completely accurate, since the emphasis is actually more on soul and fun thank and raw garage rock and psychedelia. Indeed, there's a strongJames Brown fixation to many artists here, and Roger Damawuzen should have won an award (or a lawsuit) for his uncanny imitation of the Godfather of Soul. It does get a little wild at times, as with "Congolaise Benin Ye" from Le Super Borgou De Parakou, but one thing that never falters here is the groove. Once a band latches onto it, they don't let go, keeping it rock solid, but with plenty of polyrhythms happening as part of it, giving it a wonderful, flexible feeling. There's no a bad cut here, and it's obvious that this is the result of a labor of love -- the result of two-and-a-half years work and nine trips to the countries. It may be the Francophone influence that steers the musicians away from the more obvious English and American rock sounds, although you can definitely hear the Afro-Latin percussion of Santana in the mix (and the fiery guitar work, too, at times). But whatever the artists are doing, they thankfully never try to ditch their Afro roots -- which, of course, are the bedrock of soul and rock. This all takes it in another, fabulous direction. In many ways it proved to be a bit of a dead end historically, but the music that came out of it is nothing less than sublime. And keep the player going after the last track for the hidden bonus. It's worthwhile.

Ranked Highest By: NewGrass (#1)

Amazon Link

awesome

#19.




Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective
(491 Points, 6 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. The Payoff Mix
2. Lesson 2
3. Lesson 3
4. Jazz
5. Voice Mail
6. The Motorcade Sped On
7. It's Up to You
8. I'm Wild About That Thing
9. The Big Man Laughs
10. Vox Apostolica
11. Is We Going Under?
12. Ain't No Thing
13. Everything's Disappeared
14. Number Three on Flight Eleven

Disc: 2
1. Tonight from NY Intro
2. Swingset
3. Opening Credits
4. Greatest Man Alive
5. The Id
6. Let's Get It On
7. Hit the Disco
8. Lolita
9. Hot Spot
10. It's a Funky Thing, Pt. 1
11. Bboy Breakdown
12. B-Beat Classic
13. Funk Construction
14. Them That's Not
15. Swan Lake
16. Here We Come
17. Product of the Environment
18. By Any Means Necessary
19. The Art of Getting Jumped
20. I Like It Like That
21. Solid Air
22. Country Grammar
23. Let's Get It On
24. Easin' In
25. It's Time to Testify
26. The Acid Test
27. Silent Partner (Peace Out)

Amazon.com Product Description:
"Brilliant." -- URB

"A masterpiece." -- Salon.com

"Jaw-dropping. Perfectly paced, clever, funny, and down-right funky." -- The Wire

Steinski (advertising writer, DJ, and record collector Steve Stein) produced his first record in 1983. In response to a nationwide remix contest by Tommy Boy Records, he and partner Double Dee (engineer and studio wizard Douglas DJ Franco) produced "The Payoff Mix." A panel of ten judges--including Afrika Bambaataa, Shep Pettibone, Jellybean Benitez, and Arthur Baker--unanimously chose the mix as the winner. Within two weeks "The Payoff Mix" became a Top 10 request on urban radio nationwide, but the release never saw official status and was subsequently bootlegged countless times. The Payoff Mix became the first record in a series now known as The Lessons. Double Dee and Steinski followed up with cut-and-paste landmark Lesson Two: The James Brown Mix, which Fatboy Slim called "the record that always gets the crowd going." Then came Lesson 3: The History of Hip Hop. The series quickly became highly sought after collectibles and led to homage records by DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, DJ Format, and , Steinski has produced a variety of tracks, and this Illegal Art retrospective collects everything from his hip-hop narrative about the Kennedy assassination (originally a white-label promo, also issued as a Flexi-disk for UK music magazine NME) to the 1998 remix of Afrika Bambaataa's "Jazz" with Double Dee. Besides the completist archive, the release will also includes the critically acclaimed "Nothing To Fear: A Rough Mix," an hour-long mashup that was produced for Solid Steel/BBC London, described by Salon as, "the closest thing to a masterpiece the genre has yet produced" and perhaps the most obvious precursor (along with The Lessons) to Girl Talk's Night Ripper.

AMG Says:
One of the most unlikely heroes of hip-hop has to be former ad man Steinski, who catapulted himself to street-level fame by entering a Tommy Boy remix contest in 1983 and delivering (with recording studio vet Double Dee) one of the best mastermixes of all time. No matter that this was hardly an "on the fly" turntablist piece worthy of Grandmaster Flash; basically, it came about from boxes of records, turntables, tape machines, and a dozen hours of studio time. The original "Lesson" (aka "The Payoff Mix") was a dizzying trip that took in dozens of track snippets interspersed with all manner of movie dialogue and cartoon samples. It also managed to keep the flame for truly hilarious hip-hop alive until Prince Paul and colleagues arrived on the scene in the mid- to late '80s with their own twist on the perfect beat. "The Payoff Mix" was followed in 1984 by "The Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix)," a series of the Godfather's greatest grunts, with just as many detours through funk and hip-hop as the first mix. From there, Double Dee & Steinski or Steinski solo took on everything from the history of hip-hop, jazz, and Sugar Hill to two of the most deadly serious moments in American history, JFK's assassination ("The Motorcade Sped On") and the events of 9/11 ("Number Three on Flight Eleven"). The Illegal Art compilation titled What Does It All Mean?: 1983-2006 Retrospective has most of Steinski's greatest work, including virtually all of his productions on the first disc and, on the second, one of the best mix albums of all time, his Nothing to Fear: A Rough Mix for the Coldcut-associated show Solid Steel on the BBC. Rap music has rarely gotten more virtuosic and creative than it does here.

Ranked Highest By: undo (#2)

Amazon Link

#18.




Love - Forever Changes (40th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
(506 Points, 5 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Alone Again Or
2. A House Is Not a Motel
3. Andmoreagain
4. The Daily Planet
5. Old Man
6. The Red Telephone
7. Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale
8. Live and Let Live
9. The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This
10. Bummer in the Summer
11. You Set the Scene

Disc: 2
1. Alone Again Or
2. A House Is Not a Motel
3. Andmoreagain
4. The Daily Planet
5. Old Man - Love, MacLean, Bryan
6. The Red Telephone
7. Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale
8. Live and Let Live
9. The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This
10. Bummer in the Summer
11. You Set the Scene
12. Wonder People (I Do Wonder)
13. Hummingbirds
14. A House Is Not a Motel
15. Andmoreagain
16. The Red Telephone
17. Wooly Bully
18. Alone Again Or
19. Your Mind and We Belong Together
20. Your Mind and We Belong Together
21. Laughing Stock

Amazon.com Product Description:
The third and final album by the original Love lineup, FOREVER CHANGES regularly draws epic praise. Rolling Stone described it as elegant armageddon when listing it as #40 in the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time, and, placing it in the context of the late 60s in another rave review, called it, one of the most distinctive masterpieces in that era of masterpieces. A landmark work that s the L.A.-based
psychedelic folk-rock pioneers most fully realized studio effort, it was produced by band cofounder/frontman Arthur Lee and The Doors engineer/producer Bruce
Botnick, and released by Elektra in early 68. Rhino s new two-disc COLLECTOR S EDITION revisits this all-time classic, building on its mind-expanding brilliance with over an hour of previously unreleased and rare bonus material, including an
alternate mix of the entire album.
2-CD deluxe, expanded COLL ECTOR S EDITION of Love s
1968 masterpiece. Disc One presents the original album, remastered to
sound better than ever. Highlights include Alone AgainOr, Andmoreagain, The Red Telephone, and Live And Let Live.
c Disc Two features over 77 minutes of additional audio content, most of it previously unreleased. Bonus
material includes an alternate mix of the entire album, previously unissued except for the stand-out closing track, You Set The Scene. Also features ten additional tracks including previously unreleased outtakes of Wonder People (Do I Wonder) and Wooly Bully, a
mono remix of Alone Again Or, tracking sessions highlights from The Red Telephone and more.
c Deluxe DigiPak features a special collector s edition o-card plus a 20-page book with rare photos and
new liner notes

AMG Says:
Love's Forever Changes made only a minor dent on the charts when it was first released in 1967, but years later it became recognized as one of the finest and most haunting albums to come out of the Summer of Love, which doubtless has as much to do with the disc's themes and tone as the music, beautiful as it is. Sharp electric guitars dominated most of Love's first two albums, and they make occasional appearances here on tunes like "A House Is Not a Motel" and "Live and Let Live," but most of Forever Changes is built around interwoven acoustic guitar textures and subtle orchestrations, with strings and horns both reinforcing and punctuating the melodies. The punky edge of Love's early work gave way to a more gentle, contemplative, and organic sound on Forever Changes, but while Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean wrote some of their most enduring songs for the album, the lovely melodies and inspired arrangements can't disguise an air of malaise that permeates the sessions. A certain amount of this reflects the angst of a group undergoing some severe internal strife, but Forever Changes is also an album that heralds the last days of a golden age and anticipates the growing ugliness that would dominate the counterculture in 1968 and 1969; images of violence and war haunt "A House Is Not a Motel," the street scenes of "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hillsdale" reflects a jaded mindset that flower power could not ease, the twin specters of race and international strife rise to the surface of "The Red Telephone," romance becomes cynicism in "Bummer in the Summer," the promise of the psychedelic experience decays into hard drug abuse in "Live and Let Live," and even gentle numbers like "Andmoreagain" and "Old Man" sound elegiac, as if the ghosts of Chicago and Altamont were visible over the horizon as Love looked back to brief moments of warmth. Forever Changes is inarguably Love's masterpiece and an album of enduring beauty, but it's also one of the few major works of its era that saw the dark clouds looming on the cultural horizon, and the result was music that was as prescient as it was compelling. [After releasing a fine expanded and remastered edition of Forever Changes in 2001, Rhino Records upped the ante by issuing a two-disc "Collector's Edition" of the album in 2008. The 2001 master of Forever Changes is featured on disc one, while an alternate mix of the album leads off disc two. The liner notes offer no information about when, where, or why the alternate mix was created, or who was responsible; for the most part, it sounds leaner and less detailed than the original version, and reveals a bit more studio chatter and count-offs while placing a shade less emphasis on the strings and horns. It's interesting for obsessive fans, but ultimately isn't different enough to reveal many new insights about the music. The highlights of the remaining bonus material appeared on the 2001 reissue, and though there are more studio outtakes, they tend to document studio chatter rather than music, beyond a sloppy, impromptu version of "Wooly Bully." While Andrew Sandoval has written excellent new liner notes for this edition, unless you're enough of a fan to need the alternate mix of Forever Changes, this doesn't offer much incentive to upgrade from the single-disc 2001 reissue.)

Ranked Highest By: killerparties (#2)

Amazon Link

#17.




Beck - Odelay (Deluxe Edition)
(540 Points, 7 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Devil's Haircut
2. Hotwax
3. Lord Only Knows
4. The New Pollution
5. Derelict
6. Novacane
7. Jack-Ass
8. Where It's At
9. Minus
10. Sissyneck
11. Readymade
12. High 5 (Rock The Catskills)
13. Ramshackle
14. Deadweight [Soundtrack]
15. Inferno*
16. Gold Chains* *Previously Unreleased

Disc: 2
1. Where It's At [U.N.K.L.E. Remix]
2. Richard's Hairpiece [Aphex Twin Remix Of "Devil's Haircut"]
3. American Wasteland [Mickey P.Remix Of "Devil's Haircut"]
4. Clock
5. Thunder Peel
6. Electric Music And The Summer People
7. Lemonade
8. Sa-5
9. Feather In Your Cap
10. Erase The Sun
11. .000.000
12. Brother
13. Devil Got My Woman
14. Trouble All My Days
15. Strange Invitation
16. Burro

Amazon.com Product Description:
Beck'S major label debut, MELLOW GOLD, introduced him in 1994 but it was ODELAY two years later that became a bellwether for the alternative rock movement. Now, a dozen years after its original release, ODELAY has been expanded into a two-CD DELUXE EDITION with the addition of two never-before-released tracks, a soundtrack contribution, an earlier indie-issued track, and 15 recordings heard on U.K., Japanese and Australian albums, singles, and EPs never released in the U.S. Voted Best Album of the Year in The Village Voice Jazz & Pop Critics Poll and Grammy winner for Best Alternative Music Performance, Odelay charted Top 20 and earned double platinum. "Where It's At," which won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and "The New Pollution" charted Top 10 Modern Rock, "Jack-Ass" Top 20 and "Devil's Haircut" Top 30.

AMG Says:
Beck's debut, Mellow Gold, was a glorious sampler of different musical styles, careening from lo-fi hip-hop to folk, moving back through garage rock and arty noise. It was an impressive album, but the parts didn't necessarily stick together. The two albums that followed within months of Mellow Gold -- Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot in the Grave -- were specialist releases that disproved the idea that Beck was simply a one-hit wonder. But Odelay, the much-delayed proper follow-up to Mellow Gold, proves the depth and scope of his talents. Odelay fuses the disparate strands of Beck's music -- folk, country, hip-hop, rock & roll, blues, jazz, easy listening, rap, pop -- into one dense sonic collage. Songs frequently morph from one genre to another, seemingly unrelated genre -- bursts of noise give way to country songs with hip-hop beats, easy listening melodies transform into a weird fusion of pop, jazz, and cinematic strings; it's genre-defying music that refuses to see boundaries. All of the songs on Odelay are rooted in simple forms -- whether it's blues ("Devil's Haircut"), country ("Lord Only Knows," "Sissyneck"), soul ("Hotwax"), folk ("Ramshackle"), or rap ("High 5 [Rock the Catskills]," "Where It's At") -- but they twist the conventions of the genre. "Where It's At" is peppered with soul, jazz, funk, and rap references, while "Novacane" slams from indie rock to funk and back to white noise. With the aid of the Dust Brothers, Beck has created a dense, endlessly intriguing album overflowing with ideas. Furthermore, it's an album that completely ignores the static, nihilistic trends of the American alternative/independent underground, creating a fluid, creative, and startlingly original work. [Geffen reissued a Deluxe Edition in 2008.]

Ranked Highest By: theremin (#3)

Amazon Link

#16.




Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff (Deluxe Edition)
(555 Points, 6 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Touch Me I'm Sick
2. Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More
3. Twenty Four
4. Need
5. Chain That Door
6. Mudride
7. No One Has
8. If I Think
9. In 'n' Out of Grace
10. The Rose
11. Hate the Police
12. You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face)
13. Burn It Clean
14. Halloween
15. Need
16. Mudride
17. In 'n' Out of Grace

Disc: 2
1. No One Has
2. Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More
3. Need
4. Chain That Door
5. If I Think
6. Mudride
7. Here Comes Sickness
8. Touch Me I'm Sick
9. In 'n' Out of Grace
10. Mudride
11. Here Comes Sickness
12. No One Has
13. By Her Own Hand
14. Touch Me I'm Sick
15. Dead Love

Amazon.com Product Description:
In 2008 both Sub Pop and Mudhoney are celebrating their 20th anniversary. This is the deluxe, re-mastered edition of "Superfuzz Bigmuff", containing the original EP in its correct running order, singles, demos, and two blistering live recordings from 1988, all re-mastered, or in some cases, mastered for the first time.

AMG Says:
Mudhoney didn't invent grunge, and Sub Pop Records had close to twenty releases under their belt when they unleashed the band's first twelve-inch release, Superfuzz Bigmuff, in 1988. But if this wasn't the first shot fired in the battle to bring The Seattle Sound to the four corners of the world, it was the first one that well and truly hit the target. Superfuzz Bigmuff codified the first wave of grunge the way the Model T codified the first modern automobile; this is where the ingredients came together in a way that clicked with listeners, reworking the rudiments of hard rock and garage punk into a formula that made sense in the world of alternative rock. The band's snarky wit, brazenly sloppy guitar work and songs that combined melodic hooks with Godzilla-sized riffage reinterpreted the visceral kick of metal into a format that celebrated its power while stripping it of its pomposity. And Superfuzz Bigmuff's six songs captured a great rock band as they were just starting to hit their stride; Mark Arm's vocals dripped attitude even when he was making fun of the material, Steve Turner's guitar work generated massive walls of fuzzy power, and drummer Dan Peters was Mudhoney's secret weapon, his crisp but forceful pounding giving the songs a rock-solid foundation no matter how far Turner and Arm drifted into the void of slop. Mudhoney made better and more compelling music than Superfuzz Bigmuff, but as a snapshot of the moment where grunge became a sound that meant something outside of a few dim Seattle beer joints, it's absolutely invaluable and a lot of grimy fun. Now that seemingly every album of any importance is being given the two-disc expanded version treatment, Sub Pop has chosen to celebrate Superfuzz Bigmuff's twentieth birthday with a "Deluxe Edition" that expands the EP's lineup from six to thirty-two songs. Disc one contains the original EP along with eleven single sides, compilation tracks and demo tapes; ultimately, it's a souped-up version of the Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles compilation that appeared in 1992, though the new track sequence makes more sense (the original six tunes appear in their proper order this time) and the remastering boosts the fidelity by an impressive degree. Disc two presents two live shows from the fall of 1988; the first nine tracks were recorded in Germany on October 10, and while a low-fi audience tape of this show has circulated for years, this version came from a multi-track recording of the gig, and the audio is quite impressive while the band rocks furiously and sounds gloriously silly between tracks, frequently bellowing, "Hey, everybody! We're Mudhoney!" and encouraging their fans to drop trou. The remaining six tracks come from a November 16 radio broadcast recorded in Santa Barbara; the fidelity is considerably lower and the performances meander a lot more, but if you dig your grunge slow, sloppy and Stooges-esque, this is the stuff for you. Like most upscale double-disc reissues, the deluxe version of Superfuzz Bigmuff was created with the loyal fan in mind and not the casual observer, but even for longtime Mudhoney loyalists who own previous releases of this material, the excellent packaging, remastering, and bonus live material makes this a must for anyone who ever hopped on board for the Mudride.

Ranked Highest By: Ted Falconi (#2)

Amazon Link

#15.




The Replacements - Tim (Expanded Edition)
(575 Points, 6 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. Hold My Life
2. I'll Buy
3. Kiss Me on the Bus
4. Dose of Thunder
5. Waitress in the Sky
6. Swingin Party
7. Bastards of Young
8. Lay It Down Clown
9. Left of the Dial
10. Little Mascara
11. Here Comes a Regular
12. Can't Hardly Wait
13. Nowhere Is My Home
14. Can't Hardly Wait
15. Kiss Me on the Bus
16. Waitress in the Sky
17. Here Comes a Regular

Amazon.com Product Description:
2008 remastered and expanded edition with bonus tracks of The Replacements' Tim album released in 1985. It was their first major label release. It was also the last album made by the original line-up of the band: guitarist Bob Stinson was kicked out of the band shortly after the album's release. The band performed "Bastards of Young" and "Kiss Me on the Bus" on Saturday Night Live on January 18, 1986. It was the most television exposure the band had received up to that time, but the band's behavior on the show, including swearing during the broadcast, resulted in a lifetime ban from Saturday Night Live. However, Westerberg would later perform on the show as a solo artist.

AMG Says:
Moving to a major label was inevitable for the Replacements: they garnered too much acclaim and attention after Let It Be to stay on Twin/Tone, especially as the label faced the same distribution problems that plagued many indies in the mid-'80s — plus, the 'Mats' crosstown rivals, Hüsker Dü, made the leap to the big leagues, paving the way for their own hop over to Sire. The Replacements may have left Twin/Tone behind but they weren't quite ready to leave Minneapolis in the dust, choosing to record in their hometown with Tommy Erdelyi — aka Tommy Ramone — who gives the 'Mats a big, roomy sound without quite giving them gloss; compared to Let It Be, Tim is polished, but compared to many American underground rock records of the mid-'80s (including those by the Ramones), it's loose and kinetic. The production — guitars that gained muscle, drums and vocals that gained reverb — is the biggest surface difference, but there aren't just changes in how the Replacements sound; what they're playing is different too, as Paul Westerberg begins to turn into a self-aware songwriter. A large part of the charm of Let It Be was how it split almost evenly between ragged vulgarity and open-hearted rockers, with Westerberg's best songs betraying a startling, beguiling lack of affect. That's not quite the case with Tim, as Westerberg consciously writes alienation anthems: the rallying cry of "Bastards of Young" and the college radio love letter "Left of the Dial," songs written with a larger audience in mind — not a popular audience, but a collection of misfits across the nation, who huddled around Westerberg's raw, twitchy loneliness on "Swingin Party" and "Here Comes a Regular," or the urgent and directionless "Hold My Life."

These songs are Westerberg at his confessional peak, but instead of undercutting this ragged emotion or hiding it away, as he did on the Twin/Tone albums, he pairs it with the exuberance of "Kiss Me on the Bus" — an adolescent cousin to "I Will Dare" — and channels his smart-ass comments into the terrifically cynical rockabilly shuffle "Waitress in the Sky." All this eats up so much oxygen that there's not much air left for any of the recklessness of the Twin/Tone LPs: there's no stumbling, no throwaway jokes, with even the twin rave-ups of "Dose of Thunder" and "Lay It Down Clown" straightened out, no matter how much Bob Stinson might try to pull them apart, which is perhaps the greatest indication that the Replacements were no longer the band they were just a couple years ago. Some 'Mats fans never got over this change, but something was gained in this loss: the Replacements turned into a deeper band on Tim, one that spoke, sometimes mumbled, to the hearts of losers and outcasts who lived their lives on the fringe. If Let It Be captured the spirit of the Replacements, then Tim captured their soul. [The highlight of the six bonus tracks on Rhino's expanded 2008 reissue of Tim is the first official release of the Replacements' post-Let It Be/pre-Sire session with Westerberg idol Alex Chilton as producer: there is "Nowhere Is My Home" — the great forgotten 'Mats song of this era, getting its first CD release — along with two early versions of "Can't Hardly Wait," a wonderful, shambolic acoustic version and a full-blown electric outtake, both deserving of their legendary status among collectors. While not quite as noteworthy, the other three tracks are all quite good: a really raucous, blisteringly loud demo of "Kiss Me on the Bus"; a simpler, straightforward alternate of "Waitress in the Sky"; and an alternate of "Here Comes a Regular," which is the second of only two takes Westerberg did of the song.]

Ranked Highest By: Paul, birdistheword, Slap Nutz (#3)

Amazon Link

#14.




Maroon 5 - Call and Response: The Remix Album
(695 Points, 6 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
1. If I Never See Your Face Again (Swizz Beatz Remix)
2. Wake Up Call (Mark Ronson Remix featuring Mary J. Blige)
3. Sunday Morning (Questlove Remix)
4. Makes Me Wonder (Just Blaze Remix)
5. This Love (C. "Tricky" Stewart Remix)
6. She Will Be Loved (Pharrell Williams Remix)
7. Shiver (DJ Quick Remix)
8. Wake Up Call (David Banner Remix)
9. Harder To Breathe (The Cool Kids Remix)
10. Little Of Your Time (Bloodshy & Avant Remix)
11. Little Of Your Time (Of Montreal Remix)
12. Goodnight Goodnight (Deerhoof Remix)
13. Not Falling Apart (Tiësto Remix)
14. Better That We Break (Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Doc Remix)
15. Secret (Premier 5 Remix)
16. Woman (Sam Farrar Remix)
17. This Love (Cut Copy Galactic Beach House Mix)
18. If I Never See Your Face Again (Paul Oakenfold Remix)

Amazon.com Product Description:
Call And Response:The Remix Album is the 2008 album by Maroon 5. It features remixes of hit singles and tracks from Maroon 5's first two studio album's Songs About Jane and It Won't Be Soon Before Long by various artists and producers such as 'If I Never See Your Face Again' -Swizz Beatz Remix,'Wake Up Call' -Mark Ronson Remix featuring Mary J. Blige, 'Sunday Morning' -Questlove Remix plus Just Blaze Remix, C. "Tricky" Stewart Remix, , Pharrell Williams Remix, DJ Quick Remix, David Banner Remix, The Cool Kids Remix, Bloodshy & Avant Remix,Of Montreal Remix, 'Deerhoof Remix, Tiesto Remix, Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Doc Remix, Premier 5 Remix, Sam Farrar Remix and Cut Copy Galactic Beach House.

AMG Says:
Give Maroon 5 considerable credit for letting themselves be heavily remixed on Call and Response: The Remix Album, letting hipsters from Mark Ronson to Of Montreal cut and paste, turn and twist the original tracks into something that says more about the remixers than the band itself. Now, whether the end result winds up entertaining either camp -- either fans of the band or the remixers -- is another question entirely, but at least Call and Response is interesting, letting ?uestlove, Pharrell Williams, and Bloodshy & Avant rub shoulders with power poppers Phantom Planet and experimental rockers Deerhoof. This wide net says more about Maroon 5's fashion than it does their music -- they're sharp and smart enough to know what will get them club play and blog mentions -- but it's nice to have a band so big try to tie together these two niches, even if neither the R&B nor the indie rock winds up relating to the happy mainstream hooks of the group's hits. This disconnect isn't disconcerting -- often, the album is pleasant enough as background music -- but it does mean that Call and Response doesn't have much lasting interest for fans of anybody involved in this curious project.

Ranked Highest By: James Iha (#1)

Amazon Link

#13.




Belle & Sebastian - The BBC Sessions
(824 Points, 9 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. The State I Am in
2. Like Dylan In The Movies
3. Judy And The Dream Of Horses
4. The Stars Of Track And Field
5. I Could Be Dreaming
6. Seymour Stein
7. Lazy Jane
8. Sleep The Clock Around
9. Slow Graffiti
10. Wrong Love
11. Shoot The Sexual Athlete
12. The Magic Of A Kind Word
13. Nothing In The Silence
14. (My Girl's Got) MIraculous

Disc: 2
1. Here Comes The Sun
2. There's Too Much Love
3. There Magic Of A Kind Word
4. Me And The Major
5. Wandering Alone
6. The Model
7. I'm Waiting For The Man
8. The Boy With The Arab Strap
9. The Wrong Girl
10. Dirty Dream #2
11. Boys Are Back In Town
12. Legal Man

Amazon.com Product Description:
Fourteen gorgeous tracks recorded for the BBC between 1996 and 2001. At the time, the group rarely performed live, so all these songs are noticeably different from the studio versions. The regular CD includes an additional four unreleased songs from their classic early Jeepster period. The limited, deluxe double CD contains an entire live show broadcast on BBC Evening Session in mid-2001 with another four never before heard songs. Eight-page booklet in the regular CD (six-page booklet in the deluxe version). Gatefold HQ 180 gram vinyl.

AMG Says:
Belle and Sebastian cut their first BBC session for the Mark Radcliffe Show in July of 1996 just a few months before their seminal If You're Feeling Sinister album was released. The four songs they recorded were live and intimate versions of three of the record's best tracks: "Like Dylan in the Movies," "Judy and the Dream of Horses," and "Stars of Track and Field." Hearing these songs (as well as "The State I Am In," from Tigermilk) in such a raw and unadorned state (complete with vocal wavers and assorted bum notes) isn't a revelation now, though one can imagine people tuned in to their radios that night were thrown for a loop, but it is pretty great. Of course, the songs are amazing, but just as impressively, Stuart Murdoch's vocals are heartbreakingly sincere and soulful, and the band definitively belie their image as shamblers by sounding tight and together. If they had never written or recorded more than just these four songs, they still would be legendary, but luckily they didn't quit while they were ahead and kept recording and releasing brilliant pop music. They also continued making trips to the BBC studios and The BBC Sessions collects songs recorded there between 1996 and 2001. The track list is made up of mostly album tracks and singles (highlights being an insistent "Sleep the Clock Around," a folky take on "Wrong Love," and a truly beautiful "Slow Graffiti") but the real treat for fans is the inclusion of the group's 2001 session for John Peel, for which they trotted out four songs that hadn't been released previously (or since) on record. Any one of them could have comfortably fit on a single, EP, or album and a couple even qualify as lost treasures: "The Magic of a Kind Word" pits Isobel Campbell's breathy vocals in the quiet verses against rich group harmonies in the insanely sunny choruses, and ends up as one of the band's brightest and lightest tunes that just could have been a hit single, "(My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique" has a wonderfully relaxed groove built on samples and fleshed out with some wonky synth squiggles and lovely harmony vocals by Campbell and Stuart. It was Campbell's last recording made with the band and she really shines. That session alone is worth the price of the disc, and when you add the 1996 session, it becomes damn near essential for Belle and Sebastian fans. [A deluxe edition of the release includes a bonus disc containing a raucous live show from 2001 recorded in Belfast. The fans were rowdy and spend much of the set whooping and hollering, which makes the sound less than pristine, but also gives the listener at home a sense of just how rapturously the band's fans receive their heroes. The band by this point has become a rock & roll machine, able to turn in a convincing version of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" but also dial it way down for the ballads. An unexpected highlight of the show features a guy named Barry being fished out of the crowd to front a loose but surprisingly together take on the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man." Most people would be OK to stick with the regular version of The BBC Sessions, but the bonus disc is worth hearing at least once for true fanatics.]

Ranked Highest By: RabbiSchmoiley (#1)

Amazon Link

#12.




Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac (Deluxe Edition)
(838 Points, 11 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Inn Town
2. Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight
3. Yesterday's News
4. 16 Days
5. Everything I Do
6. Houses On The Hill
7. Turn Around
8. Dancing With The Women At The Bar
9. Waiting To Derail
10. Avenues
11. Losering
12. Somebody Remembers The Rose
13. Not Home Anymore
14. Houses On The Hill
15. Nurse With The Pills
16. I Don't Care What You Think About Me
17. Somebody Remembers The Rose
18. Turn Around

Disc 2
1. Indian Gown
2. 16 Days
3. Somebody Remembers The Rose
4. Avenues
5. Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight
6. Houses On The Hill
7. My Heart Is Broken
8. I Still Miss Someone
9. Kiss & Make-Up
10. Barn's On Fire
11. Dancing With The Women At The Bar
12. Dreams
13. Breathe
14. Wither, I'm A Flower
15. Luxury Liner
16. Theme For A Trucker
17. Streets Of Sirens
18. Turn Around
19. 10 Seconds
20. Ticket Time
21. The Rain Won't Help You When It's Over

Amazon.com Product Description:
STRANGERS ALMANAC was Whiskeytown's penultimate album. The band is still steeped in the sounds of country and Gram Parsons-inspired country-rock here, but one can hear the music moving toward the pop of their final effort PNEUMONIA. Everything still centers around the voice and excellent songwriting of Ryan Adams (who was still only 22 at the time of this album's release).

The song "16 Days," for example, with its breezy, open-road, country vibe and the lovely interlocking harmonies between Adams and violinist Caitlin Cary, was released as a single, and rightfully so. There is also the beautiful, melancholic weeper "Dancing With the Women at the Bar," and a revisitiation of "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight," which appeared on the band's debut. Adams's talent shines so brightly here, in fact, that it is little wonder he would soon be pursuing a solo career (the internal tensions in the band would hasten its dissolution as well), but STRANGERS ALMANAC captures this fine, short-lived, alt-country band in full effect.

AMG Says:
When an album is good but a bit overlong, can you improve it by expanding it to roughly three times its original length? That's the curious gambit behind Geffen's "Deluxe Edition" of Whiskeytown's 1997 major-label debut, Strangers Almanac; while the original release of the album clocked in at a bit under 52 minutes, this reissue has been expanded into a two-disc set that's nearly 148 minutes long. Strangers Almanac caught Whiskeytown in an awkward moment in their history; while they'd gained a far higher profile as a new major-label act and were pegged as rising stars, tensions within the band were already starting to fracture the lineup, and Ryan Adams, Phil Wandscher, and Caitlin Cary had to replace their rhythm section a mere two weeks before they began recording, with session musicians filling out the lineup. While Strangers Almanac's fallow stretches hamper its pacing, the best material ranks alongside Whiskeytown's finest moments, and the album sounds powerfully cohesive, with a real chemistry between Adams, Cary, and Wandscher that was absent from the group's posthumous swan song Pneumonia. However, this new version of the LP seems to reflect one of the guiding credos of Adams' solo career, namely that Quantity Is Quality. Disc one of the Deluxe Strangers Almanac features the original 13-song album along with a five-song radio broadcast from the fall of 1997, with the band meandering through a sloppy live set that does feature two otherwise unreleased songs and a few inspired moments, but sounds as if Adams had awakened from a deep sleep two minutes before air time. Disc two features two rare tunes that popped up on film soundtracks ("Wither, I'm a Flower" from Hope Floats and "Theme for a Trucker" from The End of Violence) along with 19 alternate takes and demos that have circulated among fans under the title "The Barn's on Fire." Most of the disc two material is the sort of stuff that gets bootlegged but not given an authorized release for a reason -- they're covers and alternate versions (usually acoustic) that obsessive fans will dote on, but few if any objective listeners would peg as being as interesting as the group's authorized recordings. Sadly, this adequate but hardly compelling music has been included when some more interesting stuff didn't make the cut -- the four-track promo EP In Your Wildest Dreams (where "Wither I'm a Flower" made its first appearance), and several compilation appearances and single sides (especially the group's potent version on Moon Mullican's "Bottom of the Glass" on the Bloodshot collection Straight Outta Boone County). Ultimately, this edition tends to dilute Strangers Almanac's strengths rather than reinforcing them, which is a shame, as its one of the best and least acknowledged albums in Ryan Adams' pantheon.

Ranked Highest By: BobtheSquid (#3)

Amazon Link

#11.




Rivers Cuomo - Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
(865 Points, 5 Votes, 4 #1 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. Victory On The Hill
2. I Want To Take You Home Tonight
3. The Purification Of Water
4. I Was Scared
5. Harvard Blues
6. My Brain Is Working Overtime
7. I Don't Want To Let You Go
8. Oh Jonas
9. Please Remember
10. Come To My Pod
11. Don't Worry Baby
12. The Prettiest Girl In The Whole Wide World
13. Can't Stop Partying
14. Paper Face
15. Walt Disney
16. I Admire You So Much
17. My Day Is Coming
18. Cold And Damp
19. I'll Think About You

Amazon.com Product Description:
Rivers Cuomo, Weezer's front-man & song-writer, released some of his home recordings earlier in 2008. The release was so successful that he has decided to release even more. Includes demo tracks written from 1992-2007, a cover of the Beach Boys' song "Don't Worry Baby", & the three song mini suite from the highly sought after "Songs from the Black Hole". Great addition to any Weezer fan's collection.

AMG Says:
Very much cut from the same cloth as its 2007 predecessor, Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo doesn't so much offer additional revelations about Cuomo's extracurricular musical activity as it offers more of the same. If anything, Alone II feels more a bit more like a collection of demos than Alone I, containing just a slightly higher quotient of instrumental scraps and odd throwaways, lacking any embryonic version of Weezer hits (although it does have an early solo demo of "Paperface," which was recorded and discarded by the full band for their debut, later popping up on the deluxe edition of that album). There are three further songs from the scrapped Songs from the Black Hole project but the running time of this mini-suite is roughly 2:30, its brevity kind of puncturing the myth that the album is some kind of lost masterpiece, but the appeal of Alone II — like that of Pete Townshend's Scoop series, the closest comparison among other rockers — is its messiness, how full-blown buried gems in the rough sit next to cuts so curious they defy explanation. Here, those curiosities are almost all in those less-than-a-minute snippets — ranging from the gawky trumpets of the opener "Victory on the Hill" to the decidedly lo-fi mash note "I Admire You So Much" — and these blips punctuate a set of very, very good pop tunes, songs that could have been polished up and slid onto a proper Weezer album: "I Want to Take You Home Tonight" pulses with self-loathing sex, "I Was Scared" is good Pixies-ish pop, and neither sound like their early 2000s, they sound like they were written roughly ten years before, when Cuomo wrote the terrific, bouncy pure pop "I'll Think About You." That's not to say that Cuomo stays in the same place — far from it, as Alone II, like its predecessor, has more textures than most Weezer albums, thanks to some nice variations on Cuomo's signatures, such as the big piano ballad "My Day Is Coming," or how the dark, swirling undercurrent of organ on "The Purification of Water" turns it into something uniquely ominous or how "I Don't Want to Let You Go" deftly reworks some early rock & roll progressions and has a romanticism that also belongs to that era. Although The Red Album showed some serious signs of loosening up, Cuomo still doesn't allow himself the freedom to venture in these directions on Weezer's albums, and that's what makes both volumes of Alone quite valuable: they're as eccentric as they are accessible, portraits of a pop hermit letting his mind wander wherever it may take him.

Ranked Highest By: Pavement Ist Rad, Paul, Slap Nutz, The Good Dr Bill(#1)

Amazon Link

#10.




R.E.M. - Murmur (Deluxe Edition)
(913 Points, 9 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Radio Free Europe
2. Pilgrimage
3. Laughing
4. Talk About The Passion
5. Moral Kiosk
6. Perfect Circle
7. Catapult
8. Sitting Still
9. 9-9
10. Shaking Through
11. We Walk
12. West Of The Fields

Disc 2
1. Laughing
2. Pilgrimage
3. There She Goes Again
4. 7 Chinese Bros.
5. Talk About The Passion
6. Sitting Still
7. Harborcoat
8. Catapult
9. Gardening At Night
10. 9-9
11. Just A Touch
12. West Of The Fields
13. Radio Free Europe
14. We Walk
15. 1,000,000
16. Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)

Amazon.com Product Description:
This two disc collection is completely remastered. The first disc is the original I.R.S. album which was released on April 12, 1983. The second disc is previously unreleased live show from Larry's Hideaway in Toronto, Canada performed on July 9, 1983.

AMG Says:
Leaving behind the garagey jangle pop of their first recordings, R.E.M. developed a strangely subdued variation of their trademark sound for their full-length debut album, Murmur. Heightening the enigmatic tendencies of Chronic Town by de-emphasizing the backbeat and accentuating the ambience of the ringing guitar, R.E.M. created a distinctive sound for the album -- one that sounds eerily timeless. Even though it is firmly in the tradition of American folk-rock, post-punk, and garage rock, Murmur sounds as if it appeared out of nowhere, without any ties to the past, present, or future. Part of the distinctiveness lies in the atmospheric production, which exudes a detached sense of mystery, but it also comes from the remarkably accomplished songwriting. The songs on Murmur sound as if they've existed forever, yet they subvert folk and pop conventions by taking unpredictable twists and turns into melodic, evocative territory, whether it's the measured riffs of "Pilgrimage," the melancholic "Talk About the Passion," or the winding guitars and pianos of "Perfect Circle." R.E.M. may have made albums as good as Murmur in the years following its release, but they never again made anything that sounded quite like it. [As far as deluxe editions go, Universal's 2008 expansion of R.E.M.'s 1983 debut Murmur leans toward the skimpy: it may spill over to two CDs, but the only bonus material is a live show recorded at Larry's Hideway in Toronto, just three months after the album's release. There was enough room on the first disc to add both the early Hib-Tone single of "Radio Free Europe" and their first EP, Chronic Town, plus assorted stray tracks; much of this material has shown up on various releases over the years -- the bulk being reissued on 1987's clearinghouse Dead Letter Office, which also had Chronic Town on the CD, but the Hib-Tone single has popped up on Eponymous and the rarities disc, 2006's And I Feel Fine -- so most R.E.M. fans have this in their collection, which is necessary as it's not here. Any lingering resentment over this missing music should be soothed by the live show on the second disc, which captures the band in full flight. This release constitutes the first official release of an early R.E.M. concert (there are bootlegs containing a slightly longer set but this is close enough to qualify as a full show) and it's a welcome addition to their catalog as it crackles with an energy that is missing from the hazy, ethereal Murmur. R.E.M. barrel through the bulk of the album -- only "Moral Kiosk" and "Shaking Through" are absent -- plus a chunk of Chronic Town, throwing in a cover of "There She Goes Again" and early versions of Reckoning's "Harborcoat," "7 Chinese Bros.," and "Just a Touch," which didn't surface until 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant. This wasn't a showcase night for R.E.M., it was just another gig on the tour, and that's the great thing about it: the band isn't self-conscious, they're just tearing through their songs, rocking harder than they did on any of their studio albums. It's direct and a little raw -- with microphone feedback on occasion -- in a way that none of their early albums are, and that's what makes it worthy of a special edition, even if it's hard not to wish that first disc had just a few extra cuts as well.]

Ranked Highest By: arkin (#1)

Amazon Link

#9.




Gas - Nah Und Fern
(975 Points, 6 Votes, Four #1 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc One: Gas
1 [untitled] 6:28
2 [untitled] 14:08
3 [untitled] 8:21
4 [untitled] 11:50
5 [untitled] 13:57
6 [untitled] 13:52

Disc Two: Zauberberg
1 [untitled] 7:46
2 [untitled] 14:10
3 [untitled] 12:47
4 [untitled] 6:00
5 [untitled] 8:01
6 [untitled] 11:05
7 [untitled] 9:12

Disc Three: Königsforst
1 [untitled] 9:49
2 [untitled] 13:56
3 [untitled] 9:02
4 [untitled] 6:33
5 [untitled] 15:20
6 [untitled] 10:20

Disc Four: Pop
1 [untitled] 5:31
2 [untitled] 8:37
3 [untitled] 7:26
4 [untitled] 9:28
5 [untitled] 10:52
6 [untitled] 9:18
7 [untitled] 15:03

Amazon.com Product Description:
The Kompakt label presents the work of Wolfgang Voigt's Gas -- a remastered deluxe package that includes all four of his Mille Plateaux albums: Gas (1996), Zauberberg (1997), K"nigsforst (1998) and Pop (2000). Wolfgang Voigt, in the past known under a great many pseudonyms such as Mike Ink, Studio 1 or Grungerman, is the driving force behind the rise of Cologne minimal techno and also Kompakt's co-founder and co-owner. In the 1980s, Voigt began working under a concept he named BLEI -- extracting elements from classical, polka, brass music, electronic pop and German schlager sounds to form a distinguished and unique pop music style that would fit in with the subculture at that time. In the early 1990s, influenced by techno, Voigt began to experiment with a timbal marching through strongly alienated, free-floating string loops. These elegiac tracks, their lack of beginning and end, their intoxicating, smooth and partly amorphous structure sounded to him like evaporating gas and thus -- Gas was born. Gas is the vision of a sonic body between Sch"nberg and Kraftwerk, between French horn and bass drum. Gas is Wagner goes glam rock, and Hansel and Gretel on acid. Gas takes you on a seemingly endless march through the woods into the discotheque. Reducing the material to its basic aesthetic structure by using different zoom, loop and alienation techniques, he releases it from its original meaning and context, creating a kind of aesthetic essence, a cave to get lost inside. There are one or two new tracks and versions, but both Voigt and J"rg Burger decided to keep remastering light, maintaining Gas' purity and authenticity. This 4CD box comes in a special and stylish collector's format, including 4 small artwork prints. The double vinyl comes in a fold cover with a bonus artwork print and is strictly limited. The vinyl features one extended-edit track from each of the albums per side.

AMG Says:
Nah und Fern (Near and Far) bundles Wolfgang Voigt's four ambient techno albums as Gas originally issued on Mille Plateaux: Gas (1996), Zauberberg (1998), Königsforst (1999), and Pop (2000). Released on Voigt's Cologne-based Kompakt label, this is a four-disc set sold at the price of a double, featuring barely perceptible remastered sound (the point) and four artwork prints. This is as momentous as it gets in the small and otherwise discreet world of ambient techno. Kompakt also issued a double-vinyl companion with side-long edits on three sides with an exclusive track on the fourth, and the Raster-Noton label commemorated the occasion by publishing a 128-page book with a CD of previously unreleased Gas material. The most ambitious and productive Voigt ambient alias (over the likes of All, Mint, and Tal), Gas took on slightly different shades throughout the years, though we are definitely not dealing with a Primal Scream-like volte-face from release to release. From Gas through Königsforst, there is a gradual decline in harshness, but the finale, Pop, is the starkest overall. None of the tracks, ranging from five to 15 minutes in length across the series, were given titles, and the primary distinguishing factor between them is whether or not a submerged beat, typically in the form of a four-four, is present. The shifts are slight, detectable only through total immersion. It's not like there is a signature moment among the 20 tracks, or the Gas equivalent of a "1/1" or "An Ending (Ascent)," as with Brian Eno's ambient releases. The closest to standouts or instantly identifiable moments include the third track of Pop (its nearly subliminal, downcast melody reminiscent of Blade Runner, especially if Vangelis had focused instead on a sewer-level view of Los Angeles' damp streets), the following track of the same album (for its simultaneously lulling and disquieting chime-like effect), the fifth track of Zauberberg (for its oscillating stomp), and the first track of Königsforst (the most physical production, full of friction, the best candidate for terrifying a paranoia-prone sleeper in the middle of the night). Fit for zero-gravity clubbing, forest sleepwalking, or lucid dreaming, these discs make for the most affecting ambient techno released during the late '90s and early 2000s. Each album is bound to suck you into its own dream world, where lapsed shoegazers and chillout room veterans go to die, within a matter of seconds. The set is appropriately a Kompakt release, not just because the person behind the label and the music is one and the same; practically everyone who has contributed to the label's annual Pop Ambient series is a Voigt descendant.

Ranked Highest By: Badger, vurt, Heretix, undo(#1)

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Cool.

#8.




Neil Young - Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968
(1025 Points, 11 Votes)

Tracklist:
1. On The Way Home
2. Mr. Soul
3. Expecting To Fly
4. The Last Trip To Tulsa
5. The Loner
6. Birds
7. Winterlong (excerpt)
8. Out Of My Mind
9. If I Could Have Her Tonight
10. Sugar Mountain
11. I've Been Waiting For You
12. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
13. The Old Laughing Lady
14. Broken Arrow

Amazon.com Product Description:
Now greet the arrival of 'Sugar Mountain- Live At Canterbury House 1968,' another singular installment in the continuing Neil Young Archives Performance Series. On this CD+DVD set, recorded in Ann Arbor, MI, November 9-10, just days before the release of Young's self titled solo debut, one of the greatest singer-songwriters in rock history is heard solo and acoustic at the height of one of the must tumultuous and creative periods ever experienced both in music and culture. This set contains a CD featuring 14 tracks, a DVD disc including a high resolution audio mix of the album plus a 5 minute trailer for the archives set.

AMG Says:
Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 the third installment from Neil Young's Archives — although through some weird filing system this is Vol. 00, possibly because this dates before either of the previously released volumes in Archives Performance Series — culls highlights from Neil Young's two shows at Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, MI on November 9 and 10, 1968. Like its two predecessors in the Archives series, the concerts captured on Sugar Mountain are legendary among Neil Young collectors, in this case because of the gentle, tentative version of the title track that showed up on Decade — prior to this, the only official release from the concert. At first glance, Sugar Mountain might seem similar to Live at Massey Hall 1971, as they're both solo acoustic sets, but the tenor of the two shows is quite different. Massey Hall captured Neil in full flight, just before the release of Harvest, whereas the concerts on Sugar Mountain were just a month or two shy of the release of his first solo album. He had hits with Buffalo Springfield — much of the set list leans heavily on Springfield songs, such as "Mr. Soul," "Expecting to Fly," "Birds," "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," and "Broken Arrow" — but he had yet to prove himself as a solo artist, so the endearing tentative quality of his performances shouldn't come as a surprise, and yet it does: Young's reputation as a steely renegade often suggests that he never second-guesses his moves. Neil doesn't second-guess here but he is fragile and human, telling stories (sometimes at considerable length) before sliding into these delicate songs, wryly lamenting that he should have some happy songs to sing before testing out the melody for "Winterlong," stopping short because the song isn't quite written yet. It's a marvelously intimate performance, unguarded and open-hearted, unique in its delicate touch: it's Neil Young before the myth crystallized, and listening to it anew, it's easy to fall in love with him all over again.

Ranked Highest By: BobtheSquid (#2)

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Word.

#7.




Pavement - Brighten the Corners (Nicene Creedence Edition)
(1055 Points, 8 Votes, Two #1 Votes)

Tracklist:
Disc One
Brighten the Corners
1. "Stereo"
2. "Shady Lane / J Vs. S"
3. "Transport Is Arranged"
4. "Date w/ IKEA"
5. "Old to Begin"
6. "Type Slowly"
7. "Embassy Row"
8. "Blue Hawaiian"
9. "We Are Underused"
10. "Passat Dream"
11. "Starlings of the Slipstream"
12. "Fin"
Brighten The Corners outtakes
13. "And Then.... (The Hexx)" (originally released as the B-side to Spit On A Stranger (OLE-384-7), May, 1999, but presented here is the unedited full version, as such previously unreleased. It was also originally planned to be the opening track to Brighten The Corners.)
14. "Beautiful as a Butterfly"
15. "Cataracts"
Stereo single
16. "Westie Can Drum"
17. "Winner of the"
18. "Birds in the Majic Industry" (previously unreleased full length vocal version)
Spit On A Stranger single (included here since both were recorded and mixed during Brighten The Corners sessions)
19. "Harness Your Hopes"
20. "Roll with the Wind"

Disc Two
Shady Lane single
1. "Slowly Typed"
2. "Cherry Area"
3. "Wanna Mess You Around"
4. "No Tan Lines"
BBC Radio One Evening Session, January 15, 1997
5. "Then (The Hexx)" (previously unreleased)
6. "Harness Your Hopes" (previously unreleased)
7. "The Killing Moon" (released on Major Leagues EP)
8. "Winner of the" (previously unreleased)
Brighten The Corners outtakes
9. "Embassy Row Psych Intro" (previously unreleased)
10. "Nigel" (previously unreleased)
11. "Chevy (Old to Begin)" (previously unreleased mix)
12. "Roll with the Wind (Roxy)" (previously unreleased mix)
God Save The Clean: A Tribute to the Clean, Flying Nun Records compilation
13. "Oddity"
Tibetan Freedom Concert compilation
14. "Type Slowly" (live)
KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic, February 25, 1997
15. "Neil Hagerty Meets Jon Spencer in a Non-Alcoholic Bar" (previously unreleased)
16. "Destroy Mater Dei" (previously unreleased)
17. "It’s A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl"
18. "Maybe Maybe"
BBC Radio One John Peel Live Session, August 21, 1997
19. "Date w/ IKEA" (previously unreleased)
20. "Fin" (previously unreleased)
21. "Grave Architecture" (previously unreleased)
22. "The Classical" (released on Major Leagues EP)
WFNX Studios, February 12, 1997
23. "Space Ghost Theme I" (previously unreleased)
24. "Space Ghost Theme II" (previously unreleased)

Amazon.com Product Description:
The fourth in Matador's series of deluxe editions of the five classic Pavement albums is a rather joyous pop explosion after the complications of "Wowee Zowee". The double CD set, again packaged in an embossed slipcase with gorgeous 62-page perfect-bound booklet, contains the remastered original twelve-song album, ten non-album B-sides, ten outtakes, and fourteen live radio session takes, along with full-color poster and postcard.

AMG Says:
Expanded like Slanted & Enchanted, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and Wowee Zowee before it, Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition is a gargantuan, generous expansion of Pavement's fourth album. Upon an initial scan of the track listing, this may seem to hold fewer unexpected treasures for the diehards than its predecessors, as it's heavy on B-sides and radio sessions in circulation (albeit much of the latter only on boots) but that's a misleading impression: even for those well familiar with the cha-cha beat of "No Tan Lines," this reveals much, chiefly how Pavement played as a band. The preponderance of alternate takes -- not just inversions like spinning the sleepy "Type Slowly" into the chaotic "Slowly Typed" or the numerous BBC versions and live takes from Brighten material, but early unveilings of songs that showed up on Terror Twilight, along with revealing that many of that album's B-sides are outtakes from these earlier, looser sessions. First among these Terror tunes is the magnificent "The Hexx," initially titled "And Then...," a dreamy, ominous epic that the band never quite got right but it's fascinating to hear the initial stab here, and a BBC version that showed up later. While there isn't much here in the way of genuine unheard, unearthed studio cuts -- the instrumental "Beautiful as a Butterfly," the nicely shambolic "Cataracts," and the ragged country-ish "Nigel" are the only unreleased BTC outtakes, largely due to those vaults being cleared for B-sides -- having all this music placed in the larger context of the album is helpful, especially as it winds up livening up the rather subdued, ponderous proper album. Apart from the snarky opener "Stereo," and maybe Malkmus' stoned, ironic rapping on "Blue Hawaiian," there wasn't much in the way of humor or mess on Brighten the Corners -- an overcorrection for the wildly weird Wowee Zowee that made sense commercially, but now that these ragged ends are threaded back into the tapestry, Brighten the Corners seems a better album. Now, the flat-out nasty Elastica rip "Westie Can Drum" -- a phrase not sung once in the song, as Malkmus rails on his drummer for not keeping time, telegraphing his frustrations with the band -- is here, "Birds in the Majic Industry" is given lyrics, the cheerfully loping "Harness Your Hopes" is added, the band cuts loose with the careening "Wanna Mess You Around," then eases out with "No Tan Lines." Much of the BTC material sounds more open in the radio sessions, too, and it's possible to hear the roots of Malkmus' elastic guitar jams in his solo career, but the radio sessions also look backward, as the band covers Echo & the Bunnymen ("The Killing Moon"), the Fall ("The Classical"), Faust ("It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl"), and the Clean ("Oddity," not a radio session, but close enough to count). These radio sessions also produce some other great funny one-offs, including two absurd themes for "Space Ghost" and the wonderful "Neil Hagerty Meets Jon Spencer in a Non-Alcoholic Bar," a noisy, cloistered dose of rock & roll which amazingly manages to sound like its title; that same Morning Becomes Eclectic session also gives up the pretty terrific noise-pop "Destroy Mater Dei" and the heaping mess of "Maybe Maybe." All this extra material may not carry the same deliberate weight as so much of Brighten the Corners, but it enhances the album considerably, bringing it closer to an album that can stand with Pavement's first three classics.

Ranked Highest By: radiocure, SimulatedStereo (#1)

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R.E.M. burnt by Gas.