Holiday time’s around the corner and there’s a lot of big time box sets coming out trying to get your dollar’s attention. Here are two with at least some musical historic significance, to help justify getting your girlfriend to spring for it as your Christmas gift.
The Beach Boys Smile Sessions (Capitol) is arguably the greatest album never released. Brian Wilson’s attempted follow up to the brilliant Pet Sounds album was a total meltdown. Not only for the band but also for Wilson’s mental stability, because when the album went unfinished he went into a mental hibernation that lasted decades.
Wilson has since tried to capture lightning in a bottle when he re-recorded Smile in 2004 with ho-hum attention. Here though on this massive 5 cd set you get pretty much everything that got down on tape. The first disc is what the album was meant to be, at least in Wilson’s mind, and everything after that is an example of how a perfectionist can get in the way of his own brilliance.
Egads, what a mess. This directly reflects what was going on in Wilson’s mind at the time; a lot of bad acid on top of band infighting, which included two brothers and a cousin.
Smile has always and still is a car wreck. On Smile Sessions we get the opportunity to look at it out of the corner of our eye and drive by.
The box set worth mentioning though is U2’s Achtung Baby (20th Anniversary Deluxe and Super Editions) (Island), which is an awesome overview of the most critical point in the band’s career.
Leap frogging from Irish bar band with respected street cred to ridiculous uber superstars after the release and tour for The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum documentaries left the band wanting to reinvent themselves and on Achtung Baby they did.
Storming a studio in Berlin armed with a bunch of ruff and tumble songs with producer Brian Eno (who said he would ‘…erase anything that sounded too U2′), they would finish recording in Dublin and emerge with an album as the band they are known for today.
The audiotapes from the initial sessions that were recorded in Dublin were stolen and bootlegged. Feeling that it might have been a sign, they once again felt the need to reinvent themselves all over again.
On Achtung Baby it marked the first time they added elements they had personally been listening to like tape loops, hip-hop elements and a newer aggressive mixing style. They also found inspiration from working with B. B. King on “When Love Comes To Town” and recording at Sun Studios.
We know the positive; Achtung Baby was the first album to bridge tape loops with commerciality. They made it acceptable to radio. On the negative, the band took it a step too far on their follow-up album Zooropa, the only true clinker in the band’s catalog.
Besides the album itself, where everything is worthwhile, the standouts on the Deluxe’s B-Sides and Bonus Tracks include “Lady With The Spinning Head,” “Where Did It All Go Wrong?”, an electronic take of the classic “Body and Soul,” “The Lounge Fly Mix” and the best one of them all, “Salome.”
The Super Deluxe version is arguably for completest’ only in that it’s pretty much everything. Besides the forementioned B-Sides and Zooropa discs you also get a couple of cds of remixes and a whopping 4 dvds of video, including the new documentary From The Sky Down.
I knew Metallica and Lou Reed fans would question the pairing but I’ve been dying to hear their recent collaboration Lulu (Warner Bros). West Coast Metal mashed with East Coast Spoken Word.
Metallica is brilliant, without question. They can also be very vanilla safe. I know, I know they’ve recorded with Michael Kamen’s orchestrations on S&M and released a cover’s album but hardly anything daring.
Backing up New Yorker Lou Reed’s spoken word-ish material? Awesome! They’ve stepped out of their box and then crushed it. At 69 has Reed been better? Maybe, but not in quite a while.
Many thanks to producer Greg Fidelman who successfully mixes strings into Lulu’s sonic thunder, which at times is startling, especially in contrast to Reed’s vocals. Standouts include “Dragon,” “Pumping Blood,” “Iced Honey,” “The View” and the mammoth “Junior Dad.”
I always found Coldplay just so-so. They’ve really made a lengthy career out of being a band with limited range. I’m not busting them, just calling ‘em as I see ‘em. So here comes Mylo Xyloto (Capitol) and as much as I wanted it to, it has not changed my opinion of them at all.
The songs here are pretty much the same kinda songs that have appeared on their previous A Rush Of Blood To The Head, X & Y and Viva La Vida albums. All big records with big singles and Mylo Xyloto will do the same. Hey, there’s a place for everybody and Coldplay has found its niche and will continue to live and succeed there.
Songs that will have me screaming with my fingers gouged in my ears and to be played to death include “Charlie Brown,” “Hurts Like Heaven,” “Paradise” and “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart.”
U2 (MATC Times)
