TOTAL SCORE: 194, AVG: 1.94You can traverse all of the original posts that I did on Suitcase back in 2006 to get some insight on the various tracks, and of course you can check out the re:scores for Disc 1, Disc 2, Disc 3, and Disc 4. In hindsight Suitcase really sums a big frustrating piece of being a fan of Robert Pollard and GBV, and that is having to deal with only bad quality recordings of great songs. Some of best tracks on Suitcase ended up being recording into amazing songs by the Boston Spaceships (Pollard, Slusarenko, Moen), and we have proof what a proper recording can do. Yet we are still stuck with bad recordings of could be hits like The Fool Ticket, James Riot, Shrine to the Dynamic Years, Pantherz, Oh, Blinky, and Cruise (I was so happy to get the updated Bunco Men earlier this year). Now, this is a preference of mine, as other fans have a far easier to time seeing past the sound fidelity and even see it as more of a feature than a constraint, so I want to make that clear that I am not preaching to the choir here. I still would love nothing more than Pollard taking out a bunch of poorly recorded classics and re-recording them with his latest incarnation of GBV...
If you are checking out these re:scores and comparing them against my original reviews in 2006 you will notice that I have lowered the score of most of the tunes from the late 80's. Again, this is just a preference, and I have found that over the past 15 years or so I enjoy the pre-Propeller GBV less than I used to. I still like most of the music, however, the sound from that time feels more disconnected to what GBV would eventually become. That being said, if you love the music from Devil Between My Toes through to Same Place the Fly Got Smashed, then I would say that Suitcase is practically essential for you since it has songs that are just as good or better than ones that made the albums. Re-visiting my posts it was fun to see just how into the late 80's sound I used to be in, given that it isn't really the case any more. Again, if you want to see how I re:score'd the individual discs, then I've linked them again below. Under that you can see the combined updated ranking for the entire boxset.
Here is the updated ranking:
Among Bob's Best
07 Bunco Men
Gems
26 Supermarket the Moon
99 Wondering Boy Poet
Almost Gems13 Pink Drink
17 Spring Tigers
28 Ha Ha Man
39 The Fool Ticket
80 Why Did You Land?
100 Oh, Blinky
They're Good09 Dorothy's a Planet
14 James Riot
19 Flesh Ears from June
29 Our Value of Luxury
30 Bug House [2 versions]
32 Shrine To The Dynamic Years (Athens Time Change Riots)
37 Sing It Out
38 Messenger
55 A Kind of Love
58 A Good Circuitry Soldier
60 Pantherz
61 Cocaine Jane
62 Exploding Anthills
70 Carnival At The Morning Star School
71 Cruise
75 Trashed Aircraft
86 Unshaven Bird
88 Go for the Answers
90 Excellent Things
92 Where I Come From
They're OK
02 Bloodbeast
03 The Kissing Life
11 Let's Go Vike
22 Have It Again
23 Little Jimmy the Giant
24 Taco, Buffalo, Birddog And Jesus
33 On Short Wave
35 Tobacco's Last Stand
43 Blue Gil
48 I'm Cold
49 Damn Good Mr. Jam
50 In Walked the Moon
51 Long Way to Run
52 Mr. Media
53 Settlement Down
54 Mr. Japan
56 Meddle
63 Perch Warble
65 What Are We Coming Up To?
68 Once in a While
77 Turbo Boy
79 Little Head
81 Time Machines
82 A Farewell to Arms
83 Best Things Goin' Round
85 United
87 Black Ghost Pie
89 Rocking Now
93 Try to Find You
96 Raphael
Could Live Without
04 Bottoms Up! (You Fantastic Bastard)
05 Tear It Out
08 Bad and Rare
10 Pluto the Skate
12 Sabotage
15 It's Easy
16 Dank Star Ground Control
18 Born on Seaweed
21 My Big Day [3 versions]
25 Ding Dong Daddy (Is Back From The Bank)
27 Hold on to Yesterday
31 Rainbow Billy
34 I Can See it in Your Eyes
36 Shifting Swift Is A Lift
40 Mallard Smoke
41 Mr. McCaslin Will Sell No More Flowers
42 Shit Midas
44 Invest in British Steel
45 Spinning Around
46 Let's Go! (To War)
57 Big Trouble
64 Medley: This View/True Sensation/On The Wall
66 Scissors And The Clay Ox (In)
67 Cody's Antler
68 Buzzards And Dreadful Crows
72 Gayle
74 The Flying Party
76 Trying to Make it Work Again
78 Chain Wallet Bitch
97 My Feet's Trustworthy Existence
98 Eggs
Toss-Offs & Throwaways
06 Cinnamon Flavored Skulls
20 Driving In The U.S. of A.
47 Grasshopper Rap
59 Devil Doll
73 Gift
84 Sickly Sweet
91 Static Airplane Jive
94 Deaf Ears
95 Good for a Few Good Laughs
Given the scoring above, the album would get 194 points total (and an average of 1.94).
1 comment:
like you said about preaching to the choir..............i love the lo-fi gbv.i find myself listening to the psycho releases much more often than the newer albums.and if i had to make a choice i'd take any or all circus devils over the rest.keep writing your blog is great
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