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Leazes1986


Mis-Shape

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If you take Oasis's b-sides from 94-97 and make an album out of them (which they did with The Masterplan), you have an album better than WTSMG? and nearly as good as Definitely Maybe. Unbelievable b-sides.

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Eamonn


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Stephen wrote:

I do think Suede beat Blur in a 'battle of B-Sides'. Very little was silly, and even during their nadir of New Morning there are a small handful of good B-Sides that are far more listenable to anything that made that album.

Early Pulp B-Sides are the same quality as Suede I think, but there's just a lot fewer of them. I mean, how many unique B-Sides did we get from DC? Underwear (discounted as it's also on the album), PTA, Ansaphone and Mile End. That's three tracks between four singles! Amazing quality...but so few! Compare how many Suede produced for their contemporaneous 'Coming Up'...

 

Agreed with Suede, Butler-era certainly being constantly top-notch for B-sides. Ditto early-Oasis though not as ambitious.

The stuff used to fill-up the 2CD singles for Coming Up (and thus get the fanbase to buy both copies and get the single straight into the top 10) definitely suffers from quality control though.

Different Class has so few b-sides because the gestation period of the album was very short, Pulp weren't as prolific as their contemporaries and their quality control was quite high (Don't Lose It, We Can Dance Again, Catcliffe Shakedown and Paula are all either great or at least great fun).

Disc 2's of HnH and TIH deluxe are arguably as strong as the parent albums, the same may be true of WLL when we finally get the missing songs any year now.



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fredthe3rd


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I'll tell you what I love until about two-thirds in: French Song. Then it gets farcically fast and they ruin it. Don't know how else they could have finished it though.

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triciathetree


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TIH produced better b-sides than some of the album songs. You could scrap Glory Days and The Day After the Revolution for a number of the demos/b-sides/extras.

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Stephen


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Re: Coming Up B-Sides I would like to offer a five point argument:

"Europe Is Our Playground"
"This Time"
"Another No One"
"Young Men"
"Sound of the Streets"

And another one:
"Sam"
"W.S.D."
"These are the Sad Songs"
"Sadie"
"Jumble Sale Mums"

I did this post thinking I'd find five. I found ten arguments. Can't believe all these were CU B-Sides. Wow. What an amazing 10 songs!

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fredthe3rd


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I bought a best of Suede a while back and didn't think much of it - even the songs I already knew sounded too similar to each other. Do I need to give it another squizz? Also: just been listening to Blur: Midlife in the car. Is the version of Death Of A Party different from the 'Blur' album version?

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Stephen


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Yes it is.

Which Suede best of? The singles comp, or the one that came out a year or two ago?

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fredthe3rd


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The one with two girls on the front and you can't tell if they're about to kill each other or kiss each other. I have to admit the cover was a large part of the appeal.

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Stephen


The Only Way is Down

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Yeah, it's just the singles comp. Overfamiliarity possibly breeds contempt. I'd recommend the Sci Fi Lullabies B Sides comp...

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Eamonn


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Stephen wrote:

Re: Coming Up B-Sides I would like to offer a five point argument:

"Europe Is Our Playground"
"This Time"
"Another No One"
"Young Men"
"Sound of the Streets"

And another one:
"Sam"
"W.S.D."
"These are the Sad Songs"
"Sadie"
"Jumble Sale Mums"

I did this post thinking I'd find five. I found ten arguments. Can't believe all these were CU B-Sides. Wow. What an amazing 10 songs!

 

Different strokes (you don't like Rattlesnake!) I guess but Jumble Sale Mums and Young Men are the start of his descent into self-parody (not to mention lazy lyrics full of "lists") and musically fairly turgid. Sam, while charming and a guilty pleasure is a bit too ridiculous. Europe Is... is solid. Another No One is gorgeous but the production doesn't do it justice. Ed Buller strikes again. The NME gave away a live compilation around 2001 and it contained a fantastic version of it with just Anderson singing and Codling at the piano. This Time has nice piano bits but the chorus never really reaches the heights of the rest of the song. The other songs you mention are fairly bog-standard to my ears especially compared to stuff like High Rising and Whipsnade which had come before. 



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Stephen


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I would have agreed with you on Young Men once, Sir. But when they played it at Brixton I heard it for the first time as if my ears had been unclogged. He became angrier and angrier with each line and I realised it wasn't just a quasi-funny song about Tony only reading Asian Babes, but it was an angry, angry song about the Young Men "Cheating on the wives, all shiny suits and lazy lies, the young men Insulting everyone, picked up your sister, kicked your son". It impressed me hearing it properly for the first time with the passion that Brett gave to it live that I've listened to it on record a lot since and become quite the fan.

Also, the "This ain't the high-life" bit in Jumble Sale Mums is so beautiful it brings a tear to this cynic's eye.

'This Time' was also gorgeous live, but fell short of the ten I listed here I thought.

Whipsnade is beautiful - I agree with you there. But I think 'High Rising' falls short of the standard of a few of these here.

I often seem to find my tastes in Suede differ a bit from other Suede fans. I wonder what that's about!

I listened to the new Suede song 'For The Strangers' last night. It washed over me. And not in a good way. I think 'Sabotage' is ok, but neither are too exciting. I do hope they buck their ideas up because they're still a stellar live band and it'd be nice if they could get some new tunes to support that.

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Ian


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Blur do have some great b-sides and yes, some are a bit silly. Also, they seemed to pad out the early albums with what really should have been b-sides (Turn It Up, Intermission, Debt Collector, Topman, BLUREMI to name a few, I think the only album where I can handle the short instrumentals is "13").

I bought their last box set (the 22 singles) as well as all the albums so if the rarities discs are worth it I might just buy this one.

Suede, well, I think that about 80% of "Sci-Fi Lullabies" was album/single-worthy. There are also a couple of nice b-sides from the "Head Music" era that are worth checking out

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yankeehotelfoxtrot


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This is a brilliant box set, I will say that much. Love it.

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fredthe3rd


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Well I rather like BLUREMI and I'd have to argue that 13 is not an early album! At least not yet... Depends how many albums they release in the future...

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andy


Master Of The Universe

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The only Blur record that is not too long is Blur. It's probably perfect from start to finish. But yeah MLIR, Parklife and especially The Great Escape are way too Long. TGE could have been a double album if the Bsides had been properly recorded (Most of of them were rush-recorded by the band). TGE is not a favorite among critics or fans but i tend to think it's one of their best.

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Ian


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fredthe3rd wrote:

I'd have to argue that 13 is not an early album!

 Point! I must have been thinking of something different biggrin



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yankeehotelfoxtrot


Hardcore

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TGE is my least favourite, but it's still got a lot of great tracks. Blur are the best.

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fredthe3rd


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No, Pulp are the best! Isn't funny how Pulp finally made it big at the same time as all the other bands with one word names? Also: Blur are often in the radio with different songs from different albums. If Pulp are on the radio it's almost always Disco 2000. You'd have thought Common People if anything.

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triciathetree


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fredthe3rd wrote:

No, Pulp are the best! Isn't funny how Pulp finally made it big at the same time as all the other bands with one word names?

 



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andy


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It's the same as the bands with all the "The" before their name in the early 2000s. I guess that was the trend back then. Pulp was just a coincidence. That would make an interesting book: what band names reveal about our society.

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Ian


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Last night I dragged some Blur files onto my playlist and randomised them. What did I get? "Rednecks" and "Alex's Song" back to back! What MUST buyers of the "End of a Century" single have thought? Then again, that's what b-sides are for...

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fredthe3rd


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What did you think of Jonathan Ross Tricia?

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Stephen


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Ian,

The buyers of 'End of a Century' must have thought of Blur similar to how my guests must have thought of Pulp after they were subjected to my 80 minute long "Senior Moments" CD.

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PaulTMA


Hardcore

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I took 'End Of Century' back to the shop as I thought the b-sides were so shit. It wouldn't be long before I regretted it, but pocket money was scarce.... I re-bought it for 50p years later, so all was eventually well. The outtake versions of 'Red Necks' on the 21 box are essential listening.

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triciathetree


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fredthe3rd wrote:

What did you think of Jonathan Ross Tricia?

 Er. I don't have any strong opinions on him really? He's pretty funny on Big Fat Quiz but I've never watched his show beyond that clip.



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