Should we start with the music, or the incredibly annoying yet pressing music geek issue that almost spoils Stay Golden, Smog: The Best of Golden Smog?
Let's start with the music.
Born out of the Minneapolis music scene in the late eighties, Golden Smog is essentially an alternative/country supergroup, featuring at various times members of Wilco, the Jayhawks, the Replacements, Soul Asylum, and Big Star. Which gives it a substanstial and immediate heft, not just from a performance standpoint, but from a songwriting perspective as well. While Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's contributions to this Golden Smog "best of" are occasionally clunky (unless you've been searching your whole life for the perfect song about pecan pie), the tunes by the Jayhawks' Gary Louris and Soul Asylum's Dan Murphy are absolute standouts.
So that's where it starts: great songwriting, well performed. What's interesting is that the alchemy that makes Golden Smog work exists independent of the sound and relationships that make up each members' other bands. A Golden Smog track is not a Wilco track or a Jayhawks track or a Soul Asylum track with different players, even if it's written by a member of one of those bands.
Golden Smog builds its own sound out of a heady mix of country, rock, and pop. There's hooks and riffs aplenty, but lathered in a healthy dose of twang. If the Eagles weren't shitty, this is the kind of music they would make.
That's the music. It's good stuff.
Now the nitpicking begins: This "best of" release is actually just the band's two albums for Rykodisc chopped in half, scrambled, and jammed together. Eight songs from their debut, Down By the Old Mainstream, along with eight songs from their second record, Weird Tales, and two "bonus" tracks, an early demo of "Until You Came Along," and a standout cover of Brian Wilson's "Love and Mercy."
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