November 12th, 2007
1. R.E.M., New Adventures In Hi-Fi (1996)
Following a couple of accidental blockbusters (1991's Out Of Time and 1992's Automatic For The People), R.E.M. recorded 1994's Monster, a half-joking attempt to play the part of the arena-rock band they'd suddenly become. On that album's tour, a lot of things happened: Drummer Bill Berry suffered an aneurysm, Michael Stipe had a hernia, and Mike Mills had an appendectomy. No wonder the album the group conceptualized during the tour sounded so scattered. Fragmentation made it into the lyrics, too: The refrain of "Undertow" is "I'm drowning," and "E-Bow The Letter" droned on about the pressures of fame. (It was also the album's first single, a definitive shove at the marketplace; the group's commercial tailspin begins here.) It sounds bloated and shaky, but a five-track version makes it refreshing rather than windy, and captures the tour's turbulent vibe as well as the full 65-minute album does.
The EP version: 1. "Departure"; 2. "New Test Leper"; 3. "Undertow"; 4. "Be Mine"; 5. "Electrolite"
2. Prince & the Revolution, Around The World In A Day (1985)
How do you follow up the biggest blockbuster in a year full of blockbusters? In 1984, Prince's Purple Rain outsold the year's big-biz rivals: Born In The U.S.A., Private Dancer, Like A Virgin. Naturally, he waited less than a year after pushing 10 million copies of his ultimate pop statement to drop his ode to Beatles-laced psychedelia. Around The World In A Day did respectably well, selling three million discs and spawning two hits, "Raspberry Beret" and "Pop Life." But it was a tentative step into the airier stylistic terrain Prince would explore far more confidently with his next two albums, Parade and Sign O' The Times. Not only that, but Prince left two of the best songs from the Around The World era off the album—"Hello," a response to his critics following his no-show at the "We Are The World" sessions, and the charged rocker "She's Always In My Hair"—a wrong The A.V. Club can rectify by adding it to this imagined EP.
The EP version: 1. "Hello"; 2. "Raspberry Beret"; 3. "Condition Of The Heart"; 4. "Pop Life"; 5. "She's Always In My Hair"; 6. "Temptation"
3. Guided By Voices, Universal Truths And Cycles (2002)
Most Robert Pollard releases could benefit from some editing. But on classic Guided By Voices albums like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, all the disparate pieces somehow fit together perfectly, with noisy 60-second "filler" tracks connecting rockin' anthems with peerless pop. Pollard tried to get back to the eccentric ebb and flow of classic GBV records with 2002's Universal Truths And Cycles, but only got half the equation right—it contains some terrific straight-ahead rockers like "Back To The Lake" and "Eureka Signs," but finding them means digging past a dozen skippable fragments. Pared down to the essentials, Universal Truths goes from being a middling full-length to perhaps GBV's best-ever EP.
The EP version: 1. "Cheyenne"; 2. "Back To The Lake"; 3. "Storm Vibrations"; 4. "Everywhere With Helicopter"; 5. "Pretty Bombs"; 6. "Eureka Signs"
4. Radiohead, Amnesiac (2001)
Amnesiac was recorded at the same time as Kid A, and the first half plays like a worthy continuation of the previous album's chilly deconstruction of Radiohead's guitar-heavy stadium rock. "Pyramid Song" and "You And Whose Army?" might be the best songs to come out of the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions, and the relatively straightforward "Knives Out" has perhaps the loveliest melody in Radiohead's repertoire. "Knives Out" comes at Amnesiac's midpoint, and things drop off considerably afterward—only "Dollars & Cents" stands out among unfinished-sounding leftovers in the album's second half. Cut them out of the record, and Amnesiac becomes the classic Kid A addendum it was meant to be.
The EP version: 1. "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box"; 2. "Pyramid Song"; 3. "You And Whose Army?"; 4. "I Might Be Wrong"; 5. "Knives Out"; 6. "Dollars & Cents"
5. Blur, 13 (1999)
In 1997, Blur shed much of its Brit-pop skin in favor of a riskier, more American indie sound. (Remember, The Strokes were still in prep school then.) Instead of bombing, though, Blur yielded the group's biggest U.S. single, the woo-hooing "Song 2," and laid the groundwork for 1999's 13. Swimming in lo-fi grit, meandering arrangements, and the doped detachment of frontman Damon Albarn, it's a challenging and mostly rewarding record. But where Blur's previous three full-lengths were solid from start to finish, 13 nods off at the steering wheel a little too often: Tracks like "Bugman" and "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." are decent, though needless, "Song 2" clones, and some of the disc's electronica flourishes and sound collages feel forced and lazy simultaneously. Trimmed of flab, though, there's a tight set amid all the gospel choirs and droning echoes. Predictably, 13's three singles—topped by the redemptive sprawl of "Tender"—are the strongest of the bunch, but "Battles" and "Trimm Trabb" add just the right hint of hazy weirdness.
The EP version: 1. "Tender"; 2. "Coffee And TV"; 3. "Battle"; 4. "Trimm Trabb"; 5. "No Distance Left To Run"
- Comments