Adventures In Stereo

So, the end of November is drawing near and December will no doubt bring countless ‘The Best Of’, ‘The Very Best Of’ and ‘Essential’ compilation albums that capture only a selection of the artists work.  Normally it’s the stuff that the average fan can’t bear … ‘The Greatest Hits’: the breakthrough single and a bunch of top 60 ‘chart toppers’.

I have never been a fan of such albums.  All of the tracks (bar one or two ‘previously unreleased’) are on the studio albums and if you like the artist enough then you’ll own these anyway.  However, there are exceptions …

1. Unbreakable: The Afghan Whigs compilation released last year. There’s a few notable exclusions, but it’s nicely packaged, plays like a set from a Whigs gig and it’s great to hear the two new tracks from one of the greatest bands ever.

2. Thank You: The bonus DVD edition is worth purchasing. There’s the ‘previously unreleased’ gem, ‘All In The Suit That You Wear’, alongside some of the Stone Temple Pilots‘ best moments.  Again there are notable exceptions, but the bonus DVD is the icing on the cake … 3 hours of videos, live stuff and amateur bootleg footage.

3. Selections Circa 1990-2000: The Giant Sand compilation is a nice starting point for anyone interested in the dusty sounds of Howe Gelb collective.

4. Ocean of Confusion: is the second, and finest, Screaming Trees retrospective from Epic/Sony (the first being the shabbily packaged Nearly Lost You).  Covering the best of the Trees’ output between 1990 and 1996, this is another fine starting point.

… there are probably more, but I don’t own too many.  If I remember any others I’ll give them a mention.

December also brings a ton of year end lists and I wonder how many of these that Axl Rose’s Chinese Democracy will appear in.  Billed as “the most eagerly anticipated album ever”, 17 years and 4,800 musicians later, The Chinese Democracy was eventually released yesterday (November 24th).  Some of the songs do sound like they were conceived 17 years ago and in that time rock music has evolved and many of Guns N’ Roses’ fans have likely passed on.  All credit to Mr. Rose though, he’s stuck by the project and the sound that he heard.

I did expect the album to be terrible (mainly due to the farcical wait, the high drama and the fact it would never live up to the hype) I have to admit that it’s not.  I’ve laughed at some of the insanity, the clichéd lyrics and the over the top howls.  I’ve also found a few toe tapping moments there too, but ultimately it’s way too long (clocking in at over 70 minutes), lacks cohesion and is a little bloated (I expect the fact that there’s been so many ‘cooks’ involved hasn’t brought focus).

As I’ve said, I don’t think it’s terrible, but I don’t think it’s particularly good … in fact, I’m actually quite baffled by much of the album.

Where to now? Well, Velvet Revolver are still looking for a singer.  But, according to ‘The Management’, this is an exciting time for Guns N’ Roses.

There’s also great news for fans of The Gutter Twins (well, those in Europe anyway): after what has been a very successful year for Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan, they return to Europe early in the New Year. We should expect a more stripped back set similar to Greg Dulli’s incredible Triple Door set (which was released via iTunes last month).  The dates and venues:

January

15 UK Glasgow Oran Mor
16 IRELAND Dublin Academy
17 IRELAND Galway Roisin Dubh
19 UK London Union Chapel
20 BELGIUM Hasselt Muziekodroom
21 BELGIUM Brussels Ancienne Belgique
22 HOLLAND Haarlem Patronaat
24 GERMANY Berlin Babylon
25 AUSTRIA Vienna WuK
26 ITALY Milan La Salumeria Della Musica
27 ITALY Rome Auditorium Parco Della Musica
28 ITALY Florence Auditorium Flog
30 SPAIN Barcelona Apolo
31 SPAIN Bilbao Kafe Antzokia

February

2 SPAIN Madrid Joy Eslava
4 GREECE Athens Gagarin 205

Anyway, I’ll be making a start on the Adventures In Stereo Best of 2008 list fairly shortly and for the people who bother visiting the blog and who emailed to say “hey! What’s going on here?”, I’ll be making an effort to post more often in 2009 (well, at least once a month).  I’m also aware that I haven’t posted a bootleg in a while (in fact, Blind Melon was the last one) so I’ll get round to changing that real soon.  My apologies.