Off the Beat Bombtracks

[harry]

Anyone get the Best Of OTB Bombtracks 2? Looks like a great selection of songs from the past 10 years. Just didn't know if anyone has listened to it yet...

[mcbc]

Wow. I hadn't even realized that this was available until I saw this post.
http://www.a-cappella.com/product/UPenn ... ixedgroups

But no Crawling in the Dark, no Anything But Down, no Going Under, no Aerials, no Fast as You Can :( ... Guess you can't make everyone happy.

Heh. Still good stuff.

[magnolia]

I finally gave in and got the album.

Sadly, I wasnt really impressed with the album as a whole. However, it may be due to the fact of the large time frame and large style differences between tracks.

It's cool to hear some old favorites, but I kinda feel like the selection of tracks could have been better? I'm not sure what to suggest to OTB, but I wasnt drastically impressed by this album. I probably wont listen to it more than 1-2 times cover to cover.

On the site note: I'm sure the group is probably raking in some money by selling the album, which no doubt was probably a big reason behind doing the release.

[jrhailey]

Sadly, I wasnt really impressed with the album as a whole. However, it may be due to the fact of the large time frame and large style differences between tracks.

I'm sure this is probably the case. AVP released a 10-year best of album a few years ago called DECADEMICAL. The group and alumni voted on their favorite songs from each of the then 5 albums. Three songs were chosen from each album for the compilation, and two brand new bonus tracks were included. It didn't make for a very coherent listen at all, but it was interesting to listen to the juxtaposition of bare bones tracks and modern tracks, both of which were considered "the best" in their day. It's a best of album!

It's cool to hear some old favorites, but I kinda feel like the selection of tracks could have been better? I'm not sure what to suggest to OTB, but I wasnt drastically impressed by this album.

I don't think OTB is too terribly concerned with album sales for this one. Based on the nature of the album coupled with the fact that we haven't heard about it, I would imagine that this is merely a collection of old favorites for the group to enjoy. It's a representation of how OTB's recordings have evolved over the past ten years. That's a pretty cool collection in itself.

I'm curious to know if the tracks start with the oldest and progress chronologically to the most recent, or if they are all jumbled together. Anybody?

[mattootb]

Tangent: Should RARB be reviewing this? I mean OTB albums have been reviewed since way back when, so most of the tracks would already be reviewed on their original albums (not necessarily true of BOCA, Sing etc)

[ccannizzarro]

Is that relevant?

[mattootb]

Is that relevant?

No, it's a tangent. But it is on the upcoming review list. Nothing malicious, just interested.

[seth]

Albums aren't just a bunch of songs in a bag. At least, they're not experienced that way (except when we put 40GB on random shuffle), so hopefully (and usually, I think) there's more that goes into choosing songs and their order than just picking some good ones. Deke has said that's the case for BOCA (not just great songs, but great songs that work together). So even if all the songs had been talked about previously, there would still be new things to say.

Of course, that's not why RARB is reviewing Bombtracks. We're reviewing it because they asked us to.

As for the chronologicality, here's the track list with original release dates:

2005 Passive (Float)
1999 Joining You (Animal 57)
2004 Paranoid Android (Burn Like a Roman Candle)
2006 Question! (Kenophobia)
2002 Mama (Take One)
2001 Here With Me (Off the Beat)
2001 Silence (Off the Beat)
2000 That I Would Be Good (Tribulation)
2005 So Cold (Float)
1999 Jackie's Strength (Animal 57)
1998 Foolish Games (Patio)
2003 Bring Me to Life (More Screaming)
2006 When We Are One (Kenophobia)
2000 Wild Horses (Tribulation)
2001 Let Down (Off the Beat)
2006 Hide and Seek (Kenophobia)
1998 Back on Earth (Patio)
2001 I Will Love Again (Off the Beat)
2000 The Kids Aren't Alright (Tribulation)
2004 Possum Kingdom (Burn Like a Roman Candle)
1997 Vaishnav Jan To (No Static)
1997 Free (No Static)
2005 Time and Time Again (Float)
1997 Blood of Eden (No Static)
2000 Intermission (Tribulation)
2003 No One Knows (More Screaming)
2001 Pardon Me (Off the Beat)
1997 Crash Into Me (No Static)
2003 Volcano Girls (More Screaming)
2002 Superman (Take One)
2004 Chop Suey! (Burn Like a Roman Candle)
2000 Beautiful People (Tribulation)

In fact, they've all been reviewed by RARB before. We've reviewed 183 songs on 12 albums by OtB over the past 13 years. Yow.

[magnolia]

Awesome. Thanks for the list Seth!

P.S. My fav tracks come from Patio. Classssic.