What?: Compilation of b-sides, live tracks, rarities for Gomez.
Why?: I can't remember. My wife is the Gomez fan. I suspect we bought this cheap, not being aware it was a compilation.
Tell me more!:
My interest in Gomez peeked after seeing them live in 2000 and dropped off after 2004's "In Our Gun". This compilation sits right in the middle of that.
By its nature it's all over the place, with crap unfinished jams sitting next to epic live jams and sub-par b-sides.
The best stuff are the live or remixed versions of songs from their first two albums. The band completely rework "78 Stone Wobble" into "78 Stone Shuffle". "We Haven't Turned Around" (x-ray version) is a fantastic remake with almost all instrumentation removed, replaced with simple keyboard riffs, bringing the vocals right to the front, and the live version of b-side "Rosemary" is epic blues.
Their Beatles cover, "Getting Better", suits the band well, although it's a fairly straight cover. "Cowboy Song" is a bizarre C-64 jam that I like, but mostly due to it being so short.
"Bring Your Loving Back Here" is classic Gomez that I find hard to believe is buried on this album and found nowhere else. Fans love "Buena Vista", and I do like the little echo riff it has but the vocals are a bit grating... but it's the awesome jam that kicks in after 4 minutes that makes the song. I'm a bit of a fan of "Wharf Me" too, the music is so chilled... almost Smashing Pumpkins MCIS.
Much of the the rest of the album is hard to describe... left over... "bits"? They're barely songs. Most are very short (sub 2 minutes). There is some interesting stuff going on, I like the blues-trip-hop of "Steve McCroski", but mostly as an idea, maybe not the execution.
Half a good live/remix album, half an interesting insight into the bits of tape left on the cutting room floor. Listening has re-ignited my love for old Gomez, so I might check out their recently released b-sides album, especially to hear the original version of Rosemary.
5/10
