Two bands reunite for new releases this week while another throws a handful of bonus tracks onto a now-classic album that is mercifully old enough that we might not feel so fleeced into buying this "deluxe edition."
Crowded House - Time On Earth: Neil Finn originally set out to create another solo album, but with Crowded House drummer Paul Hester's unfortunate suicide, he wound up getting back together with fellow Crowdies Mark Hart and Nick Seymour and the material steered back towards the band rather than his own project. That's fine, since Neil Finn's solo works aren't drastically different than Crowded House anyway. And from the sounds of things, Time On Earth straddles the very fuzzy line between the two - being slightly darker in tone than Crowded House, but a little less serious than Finn solo. This is okay - we're all 10 years older and it would be kind of unfortunate for the band to not display some signs of maturing in that time. Not that Crowded House was ever "immature," but I'm all for the band presenting listeners something that doesn't cater to their every expectation, and from all reviews I have seen, that's what they've given us. An album from Crowded House that takes a little time to develop a relationship with the listener is a good thing. Let's hope we don't have to "dream it's over" after this album and tour.
Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape Deluxe Edition: Cool - one of the few times when a "deluxe" edition has come out sufficiently far enough in time from the original that I don't feel like I'm being gouged buying it again. In addition to being remastered and new liner notes, this edition adds 6 non-album tracks:
"Requiem" (Killing Joke cover)
"Drive Me" Wild (single b-side)
"Down In The Street" (Gary Numan cover)
"Baker Street" (Gerry Rafferty cover)
"Dear Lover" (single b-side)
"The Colour And The Shape" (single b-side)
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist: "Smashing Pumpkins," "Zwan," "Billy Corgan," whatever you want to call it - it's all just him and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and a couple of stand-ins for when they play live. I'm feeling mixed about this one after seeing their very lackluster performance at Live Earth this past weekend (not to mention Corgan's very distasteful plug for the new album,) but not many of the performances there were particularly good, so I don't want to allow that to color my perception of the new album. But it's hard not to be a little jaded about this one when we're being asked to swallow a ridiculous bonus track situation after the whole Machina II fiasco years ago, where Corgan gave the album out to fans, for free, to spread among everyone far and wide after the label gave him a hard time. It's just harder to believe that he'd stand by this kind of stupidity after doing that. Regardless, here we are on release day and there are multiple versions of the album. In addition to a "deluxe" edition that consists of a 70-some-odd page book with the CD (but no additional music or video content? Strange... ) there are multiple versions of the album:
Article comments
1 - JC Mosquito
I passed on the new Crowded House today and bought the Beatles' Love instead (playing serious catchup on my purchases). Did I make a mistake?
2 - Tom Johnson
Well, I don't think you've wasted your money - I really like Love, too. But I'd definitely want to have the new CH in my hands pretty soon, too.
3 - JC Mosquito
....I don't even have the Sydney Opera House 2 CD set from CH's final tour. Gotta save those nickels and dimes....
But the Beatles' CD (on one listen) is a fascinating testament to sound engineering at its finest. It should have been packaged as The Ultimate Remix Album of All Time.
4 - Tom Johnson
You could be forgiven not having Farewell To The World, since it is "just" a live album/DVD (but I think you'd be missing out - it's absolutely great. I listen to it all the time.)
I did a piece on Love back in the fall, if you'd like to take a look. It seems there was a lot more controversy surrounding this thing just half a year ago - and now it doesn't seem to be so shocking anymore.
5 - JC Mosquito
I waited for the dust to clear - I hate being accused of jumping on any bandwagon, tho' I suppose I've jumped on (and off) a few in my time.
Actually, I think I remember your piece - it was one of many reviews that made me wait.
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7 - Josh
We're completely in sync on Zwan, Tom. "Ride a Black Swan" might be the best thing he and Chamberlin ever did. Similarly, I seem to like this new record than a lot of people do. I don't love it, but it's a pretty good piece of work.
On the FF re-issue, I agree about enough time having gone by. Just one nitpick... why not include the remix/alt. version of "Walking After You" from the X-Files soundtrack?
8 - Tom Johnson
You know, after a few listens, I'm really starting to like this new Pumpkins album a lot. It has some tunes I could do without ("Starz" comes immediately to mind, and "United States" is way too long) but this is WAY better than most of the reviews I've seen have said it is. Again - just like Zwan.
I saw others lamenting the lack of that alternate version, too. I've never heard it, but it would have been nice to have the chance on this album, where it belongs. Perhaps they're preparing a rarities album or something?
9 - Josh
You're right about both "Starz" and "United States." Overall, though, it's pretty good.
Did you get the FF re-issue? Is the re-mastering noticeable? I'm on the fence...
10 - Tom Johnson
I got it, but I can't really say the remastering all that noticeable. The new one might be a little sharper and cleaner sounding, but it might just be "hopeful listening." I got this purely for the extra tracks, so if you have those already or don't care, then I can't see why this would be a necessary buy at all. It's too bad they didn't add a DVD of a live performance or something to really make this a necessity.
11 - charlie dohety
Yeah, the different album versions of Z and the inclusion of Paris Hilton (one shot is too much) in the booklet pissed me off. (Why Billy and Jimmy wanted that tartface on the their album and apparently their upcoming cd single, I'll never understand, along with his decisons of the years to wear a friggin big cape/curtain/dress on stage)
The best version of Zeitgeist is the ITunes one, simply because "Stellar" is the BEST of the bonus tracks, which I bought, but I hate the thought of not actually holding the CD in my hands and putting it next to all the other albums in my cd case - the burnt cd will do but it just doesn't look right.
Whatever version you're thinking of getting is worth the money: the whole album is good, though "United States" and "For God and Country" aren't that great, but "Bring the Light" and "Doomsday Clock" totally rock, the latter of which is even in the final scene of the TRANSFORMERS movie from what I hear (and on the soundtrack as well)!
"Starz" and "Bleeding the Orchid" rock; it's some of the vocals that can be too, I don't know, quirky or melodramatic.
And by the way, I totally (well, almost totally) disagree that the Pumpkins' Live Earth performance was "lackluster." All four songs they did rocked, but they shouldn't have started out with "United States"; it's heavy, but too long and too generic.
And how could you not enjoy an EXTENDED version of "Today," which they've never done before until this tour.
And I thought quite a few other Live Earth performances were worth watching, especially Roger Waters, Spinal Tap, Alicia Keys and Keith Urban covering "Gimme Shelter," and the Foo Fighters (even with Dave Grohl's cheesy intro to "Times Like These").
The Police were great, but I don't know what they were thinking bringing out Kanye West to rap over "Message In A Bottle." John Mayer had covered the song in the past, so he did a good job, but Kanye was awful and so The Police ended with a sour note. And oh yeah, the indie rock band playing for the penguins in Antarctica wasn't too bad, either!
12 - Tom Johnson
I'll still have to go with my initial feelings on the Pumpkins' Live Earth performance - it was sloppy, plain and simple. Billy sounded particularly bad - his voice isn't what it used to be and he was really overdoing it. Plus the band seemed to speed up and slow down randomly throughout songs - this is very strange given Jimmy Chamberlin's incredible talent. If it was intentional, it was very annoying. If it wasn't . . . well, it doesn't bode well for the future.