BARENAKED LADIES: STOP US IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE! (2012)
1) I Don't Get It Anymore; 2)
Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!; 3) Half A Heart; 4) Old Apartment; 5) Shake Your Rump; 6)
Same Thing; 7) One Week; 8) Teenage Wasteland; 9) Long While; 10) Second Best;
11) I Can, I Will, I Do; 12) Adrift.
Considering how productive Page and Robertson
had shown themselves to be over the centuries, one would think it reasonable to
suggest they might have a shitload more of stuff in the vaults — enough to fill
out a boxset or two, and delight the fans, especially those that admire the
band's «serious» side as sincerely as their «quirky» side. Moreover, some
dedicated and knowledgeable fans occasionally confirm that suspicion — which
makes it all the more surprising why the heck is the band's only archival CD, containing a modest
46-minutes worth amount of music, focused almost exclusively on alternate
versions of already well-known tracks, always inferior ones and sometimes
differing only in regard to the mix.
The official explanation is that the record was
originally planned as a «companion» to a proper best-of package (Hits From Yesterday & The Days Before),
but something went awry, the two projects could not be properly synchronized,
and eventually the rarities package got delayed and was released as a separate
entity one year later. Regardless, it's a fairly pointless entity. The only
track that is worth some interest is the previously available single B-side
ʽYes! Yes!! Yes!!!ʼ, a fun, catchy power-popster co-written by Hearn and
containing one of the fuzziest riffs in Barenaked Ladies history (although,
might I add that the cheesy synthesizer line that comes in to double the riff
adds a suspicious whiff of a teen-oriented summer-themed video game). Maybe it
is also possible to throw together some excitement for the unfinished electric
demo of ʽLong Whileʼ, but there is nothing special about it.
Technically, there is also some live stuff here
that could be useful for fans — early performances of ʽSame Thingʼ and some
pointless bore that is arrogantly titled ʽTeenage Wastelandʼ, preceded by silly
jokes on the art of performing in the German language and eventually
transforming itself into a subsconscious, but flaccid, tribute to Otis
Redding's cover of ʽSatisfactionʼ. Yes, there is also a live run through a
Beastie Boys song (ʽShake Your Rumpʼ), but I see no point in the Barenaked
Ladies covering the Beastie Boys other than informing their audience that they
do, in fact, love the Beastie Boys, which we already know because of ʽOne
Nightʼ etc.
Everything else is just demos and alternate mixes
of songs that weren't that good to begin with (ʽI Can, I Will, I Doʼ), or, on
the contrary, songs that were already perfect (ʽOne Nightʼ) and needed no further
undisclosed variations. In short, this whole package is more for the
historiographer of the Barenaked Ladies than even the loyal fan; maybe someday
Robertson might learn how to get it right, but until then, you might want to
trust my thumbs
down on this.
Check "Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before!" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before!" (MP3) on Amazon
This compilation really pissed me off. As seemingly the most dedicated fan of the band to be following your reviews here I will corroborate the theory that this compilation was an enormous missed opportunity and could have been pretty good with better song selection.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest thing that could have saved it would have been focusing on properly released non-album tracks and not on never-before-heard material like all the redundant demos and not-so-alternate versions.
For anybody curious as to the band's non-album highlights here's a short list of some of my favourite tracks that didn't make it onto proper BNL albums. Most of them are easily findable on youtube I think. Several of these songs can be found on various other compilations but they aren't on a proper BNL album so as far as I'm concerned that makes them fit for inclusion on a compilation like this:
Trust Me
It's Only Me (The Wizard of Magicland)
Get In Line
The Ballad Of Gordon
Big Bang Theory Theme
Lovers In A Dangerous Time
Thanks That Was Fun
Inline Bowline
There are many other B-sides or foreign country-bonus tracks out there as well that might not be as good as the tunes I listed above but are still pretty decent and are definitely better than brainfarts like "I Don't Get It Anymore" and "Teenage Wasteland" which were included. There's also several discs worth of early indie cassette releases that the band put out in their pre-Gordon era. Much of that material would get rerecorded on their debut but at least those alternate versions would pose some interest to people while also shedding light on what the band sounded like in their very early days. And these early tapes also have their share of material that never made it onto a proper album. It baffles me how they overlooked all of that stuff in favour of what they did include here.
It seems the band's post-Page musical degradation has even eroded their ability to properly evaluate their own past work. What a shame. At least in this case if they ever get around to putting out a 2nd volume of this, we know that the majority of songs left to include are good ones (unless they've been stockpiling All In Good Time and Grinning Streak demos over the past few years. The horror!).
It should be said that four of the tracks listed in the above comment is available on their first greatest hits release, Disc One: the Greatest Hits.
ReplyDeleteYep, I'm aware of that. But who the heck buys Greatest Hits for just four tracks though (aside from me anyway). Those tracks absolutely deserve to get their own proper redundancy-free release.
Delete