I've Become Spectacular...
Hello, all. It's been a while, what with exams and Christmas and such, but I am back. I'll be in Vermont until at least the 18th, toiling for Killington as basically a glorified building manager for one of its condos. Should be fun. This year they've decided to give their employees massive lift ticket discounts, which means on an average weekday I can get a lift pass for 20 bucks. That means incentive for you URI folks to come visit.
I figured I haven't done a solid album review in a while, so for the rest of this entry I'll focus on one of my Christmas presents; Matthew Good's In a Coma.
In a Coma is to typical "greatest hits" compilations what a great white shark is to a sea bass. This is a three-disc affair, with the first disc being the hits and singles (plus three previously unrelease tracks), the second being acoustic versions and rarities, and the third being a DVD with every music video Matthew Good has ever made (with the exception of the joke video for "Oh Be Joyful," which featured a fireplace... and nothing else). With what basically amounts to 4+ hours of material, In a Coma makes all other career retrospectives look like the half-assed cash-ins they usually are.
The hits disc is a solid mix of Matthew Good's best, and the three previously unreleased tracks (the indie-rockish "Oh Be Joyful," the slow and catchy "Big City Life," and the driving "Pony Boy") are all solid. Most noticable to longtime Matt Good fans is the complete absence of anything off of The Audio of Being. This is probably because the man himself has never liked the album that essentially broke up his band, but it's a shame because both "Carmelina" and "Anti-Pop" are amazing singles.
Matthew Good owns up to Audio on the second disc, which features acoustic versions of nine songs spanning most of his previous albums. There are a couple hits ("Apparitions" and "Hello Time Bomb") and a few cult favorites ("Generation X-wing"), but all nine tracks are an intersting listen just to hear how the songs are changed to fit the coffeehouse vibe. "Apparitions" and "Strange Days" are barely affected, but the faster songs are completely overhauled. Most telling is "North American for Life," a punkish fight song off of White Light Rock & Roll Revue that is transformed into an ominous orchestral dirge that brings mental images of orbiting Star Destroyers. After the acoustic songs comes everything off of the rare EP's Loser Anthems and Low-fi B-sides. Low-fi was especially interesting to me, since I had never heard any of its three songs before, and it features Matthew Good covering Depeche Mode.
The third disc makes one wonder how much better off the state of American music videos would be if artists realized they had to compete with Matthew Good. His earlier work with the band was fairly typical group-shot videos, but starting with "Indestructible," in which Matthew Good gets cloned, thing start to get interesting. This entire set is worth the price of importing it just for the amazing videos for "Apparitions" and "Weapon," but nearly every clip on the DVD blows most American music videos out of the water. The third disc also includes a brief clip of the recording of disc two's acoustic versions, and there is also a comprehensive discography, but screw all that. It's the videos that are the meat and potatoes of this disc (and possibly the entire set).
So in short, even if you've been following Matthew Good for a while, you should still get In a Coma. If you're just a casual fan who is wondering what else he's been up to, pick up In a Coma. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, definitely get In a Coma. And might I reccomend ordering it directly from matthewgood.net, where the whole package is a measely 21 bucks? Amazon will fleece you for the import price.
Now if you don't mind, I'm going to contemplate going gay for Matthew Good. Until next time, keep yourselves classy.