Re-make/Re-model

by Jeff Terich

12.05.2005

Even before I begin to unfold what I have been up to for the last few weeks, I'd like to preface by saying that I firmly believe an album should be listened to the way an artist presents it. When the process of recording, mixing, engineering, mastering and packaging has come to an end, we at least owe artists the respect of objectively hearing their art in the form they deem presentable. And all of the bands I plan on discussing in the following essay I strongly support and have purchased their albums and enjoy them in the forms in which they were commercially released. That said, they ain't perfect.

Last month, I was listening to Death Cab for Cutie's Plans and thought to myself that the opening track, "Marching Bands of Manhattan," doubles well as a closer and an opener, and that the sequencing on that album is a little curious. However, compared to many others, it's downright meticulous. Some records in my collection, I can't help but think, could use a little tweaking. Not every album, no matter how many good songs are on it, is put together in such a way that people would consider perfect or even great.

Many albums, particularly double albums, have been taken apart by fans and reconstructed in a more seamless and digestible format. Inspired by such efforts, I decided to take some key inclusions in my personal collection that could have used a better filtration system. Some openers didn't have the right "pop." Some closers didn't wrap everything up the way they should. Some songs just weren't good enough, and some extraordinary songs were left off. Let's just be honest: some albums aren't as good as they could have been.

Now, if I really didn't like these albums, I'd just stop listening to them. And as it is, I still find them to be good albums. But I feel I could improve them, just a little, by changing the order and swapping some songs around. So I took a few albums I thought could use a tweak or two and this is what I came up with.

Apples in Stereo - The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone

1.Alright/Not Quite
2.The Rainbow
3.Look Away
4.What Happened Then
5.Stream Running Over
6.I Can't Believe
7.Submarine Dream
8.20 Cases Suggestive Of…
9.The Bird That You Can't See
10.Stay Gold
11.Her Pretty Face (from Look Away EP)
12.Behind the Waterfall (from Look Away EP)
13.Everybody Let Up (from Look AwayEP)
14.The Afternoon

I've always felt that The Apples In Stereo's 2000 release, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone couldn't quite live up to its predecessor, Tone Soul Evolution. Even the between-album Her Wallpaper Reverie seemed more thematically tight. And opener "Go" just wasn't very good. Lyrically trite and faux-funky, it had to go. Instead, I put "Alright Not Quite" in its place, because it sounds exactly like Lou Reed's "Vicious," which opens Transformer quite perfectly. I added some b-sides from the Look Away EP at the end, and shuffled some songs around. And like many other albums I experimented with, I split it into two sides. The first ends with the dreamy "Submarine Dream," formerly track 8 on the original. And the second begins with Hilary Sidney's excellent "20 Cases Suggestive Of," another fine opener, but one that wouldn't quite make as much sense at the beginning. All in all, it's a much stronger set, in my opinion, and 11 of the 12 originals are still there.


Bright Eyes - Lifted or the Story is in the Soil Keep Your Ear to the Ground

1.Method Acting
2.Lover I Don't Have to Love
3.You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
4.Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come
5.Bowl of Oranges
6.Loose Leaves (from There is No Beginning to the Story)
7.Nothing Gets Crossed Out
8.Make War
9.Laura Laurent
10.From a Balance Beam
11.Let's Not Shit Ourselves

If I'm Wide Awake It's Morning taught us anything, it's that a short Bright Eyes album is the best kind. Conor Oberst tends to go overboard at times, and though generosity in material can hardly be considered a fault, sometimes a stronger statement can be made with a more concise presentation. With that in mind, I deleted three songs from Lifted's original tracklist. Pushing aside the lengthy "Big Picture," the fantastic "Method Acting" now makes for a much more dramatic and bombastic opener. "Lover I Don't Have to Love" has been pushed up to the second track, as it's a good place for such a powerful single. "Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come" has also been pushed up in the interest of giving the first half its own epic, while the latter half has two, and remains largely the same. However, "Loose Leaves," a b-side released the same year, seems to make a fine closer for the first "side." And about 17 minutes have been shaved off the record, which was part of the original motivation for restructuring this album in the first place.

Guided by Voices - Mag Earwhig!

1.I Am A Tree
2.Running off With the Fun City Girls (from Japanese version)
3.I Am Produced
4.Choking Tara (Creamy Version) (from Everything Is Nice compilation)
5.(I'll Name You) The Flame that Cries (from I Am A Tree EP)
6.Mute Superstar
7.Not Behind the Fighter Jet
8.Bulldog Skin
9.Jane of the Waking Universe
10.Learning To Hunt
11.Knock `Em Flyin'
12.Little Lines
13.Now To War
14.Portable Men's Society
15.Sad If I Lost It

Many will argue that touching a Guided by Voices album, filler included, is sacrilege. I can only reply with a question — do you really listen to every song on this album? I mean, there is filler on every GBV release, but this one has at least five instances of absolutely pointless material and a few extra tracks that just don't stand up to the rest of the material. So here's a leaner, meaner version of the album, first doing away with "Can't Hear the Revolution," a song that sounds unfinished, with "I Am A Tree," the album's real opener, as it seems to kick things off best with its raucous and anthemic energy. "Sad If I Lost It," originally the second track, is now the closer, as it seems to make more sense at the end, displaying its tense power better there. "Running Off With the Fun City Girls" from the Japanese version has been placed at track two, followed by the one short lo-fi number I decided to keep, "I Am Produced." Now, I love "Choking Tara," but the thirty second version just isn't enough, so I saw it fit to swap it for the "Creamy Version," which is catchy enough to be a single, in my opinion, and sounds more complete. Other notable changes: "Mute Superstar" and "Jane of the Waking Universe" have been moved up significantly, while "(I'll Name You) The Flame that Cries" was added. It may not have been needed, but it's not too shabby a song, so what the heck.

Ryan Adams - RockNRoll

1.Nuclear (from Demolition/The Pinkheart Sessions)
2.Shallow
3.So Alive
4.Don't Even Know Her Name (b-side to "So Alive")
5.Luminol
6.Anybody Wanna Take Me Home
7.Rock N Roll
8.Starting To Hurt (from Demolition/The Pinkheart Sessions)
9.This is It
10.She's Lost Total Control
11.Burning Photographs
12.Hypnotixed (from import versions of album)
13.I'm Coming Over (b-side to "So Alive")

I'm sure few people will argue with me that RockNRoll isn't perfect, but the funny thing is, I actually like the album a lot. A lot of the songs are silly and not meant to be taken all that seriously, but there are some genuinely stunning songs, all of which, when paired with worthy counterparts, add up to an album every bit as good (in my opinion) as his prior gems, Heartbreaker and Gold. So, the first order of business was to cut some songs: "Wish You Were Here" and "Boys" because they're honestly not very good; "Do Miss America" and "Note To Self: Don't Die" because they're decent but make better b-sides; and "1974" and "Drugs Not Working," not necessarily because there's anything wrong with them, but because they just didn't seem to fit in the finished product. Next order of business: add some songs. "Nuclear" and "Starting To Hurt" from Adams' Demolition compilation (and unreleased Pinkhearts Sessions) actually would have been perfect on this album, so I found it necessary to resurrect them, making the former the outstanding opener the album deserved. The latter, however, starts off the second half, so each is helmed by an old favorite, thus giving the album a stronger boost toward greatness. "So Alive" was moved up to song three, followed by the more roots-rocking "Don't Even Know Her Name," a b-side that can more than stand up to much of his album material. Then comes "Luminol," "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" and the title track, and the album starts sounding more familiar. "This Is It" was pushed deeper into the album, merely because it isn't as strong as an opener, and sounds better in the middle. The end is changed quite a bit with the bonus track "Hypnotixed" coming after "Burning Photographs" and b-side "I'm Coming Over" closing the album with a dreamier ballad, rather than a rocker, closing things out in more traditional Adams style. In my opinion, the album goes from being a fun and catchy album to a classic. But that's just me.

The Clash - Sandinista

1.The Magnificent Seven
2.This Is Radio Clash (single)
3.The Leader
4.One More Time
5.Somebody Got Murdered
6.Rebel Waltz
7.Lightning Strikes (Not Once, but Twice)
8.Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)
9.Armagideon Time (b-side to "London Calling")
10.Police on My Back
11.Let's Go Crazy
12.Something About England
13.The Call Up
14.Charlie Don't Surf
15.Hitsville UK
16.Bankrobber (single)

This one probably doesn't need much explanation. The Clash never topped London Calling. Nobody did, really. But that doesn't justify a triple album chock full of filler. So, simply put, I chopped off half, added a couple singles and voila—a fantastic album. I did take liberties with "Radio Clash," as it didn't come out until almost a year later, but it seems to fit, especially after the funk blast of "Magnificent Seven." So I think that's justification enough.

Smashing Pumpkins - Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

1.Bullet With Butterfly Wings
2.Here is No Why
3.1979
4.Love
5.Jellybelly
6.Thirty-Three
7.Muzzle
8.To Forgive
9.Where Boys Fear to Tread
10.Bodies
11.In The Arms of Sleep
12.Thru The Eyes of Ruby
13.Stumbleine
14.Beautiful
15.Tonight, Tonight

Just about everyone has tried his hand at a better version of Smashing Pumpkins' 1995 double album, an album that could have easily been one disc. In fact, the band recorded around four albums' worth of material, but cut it more or less in half, so even the finished product was slim, but not quite enough. So some stuff goes either for being too silly ("We Only Come Out At Night"), unlistenable ("XYU", "Tales of a Scorched Earth") or just not quite interesting enough. Here we have a phenomenal 15 song set that sounds more like a live set, most likely, and for that reason flows more seamlessly. It rocks out in all the right places, with just enough of the album's prettiest ballads to offset them. But, of course, the two biggest changes are at the beginning and end. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" opens the record with a much louder bang than the piano instrumental (yawn) and offers the album's mission statement up front: we're done with manufactured angst. I put "Tonight, Tonight" at the end, however, as it just wraps everything up beautifully, but on an up note. The actual albums, on both discs, ends in such a boring fashion, that I thought it would be more interesting to have one of the most powerful and emotional songs close the album. Just listen to it and prove me wrong.

These six albums are just the beginnings of my experiments with indie rock's unpolished masterpieces. I have more planned for albums by Fountains of Wayne and The Dandy Warhols, among others, but these are what I've done so far. It's harmless fun, really, and those that disagree with my changes don't have to listen to me. In a way, this is like making a good mix tape, but with a much more limited set to work with. And I'm happy with the results. Like I said, I do enjoy these albums in their original form, but I find nothing wrong with shuffling the deck a little bit. And I offer one last bite of food for thought before I depart — if musical works of art weren't meant to be malleable, then try explaining remixes, compilations, greatest hits and iTunes.