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Various Artists
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Tracks And Fields
Kill Rock Stars
Release: 4/06/2004
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Rated:
Review by:
Jason Warner
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This album is the second in a three part series that began with Fields And Streams and will conclude in 2005 with Roads And Tracks. This is a two-disc album of trash gleaned from the archives of Kill Rock Stars, or so it would seem. There are some good songs here, some very good songs, but the majority seems to be throw away tracks from rock bands that are too-obscure, too-avant garde, and too-indie, which is exactly what Kill Rock Stars was going for. So, in that respect they hit their mark perfectly.
In total there are 41 tracks to digest. Some slide down easily while others come back up like a swig of Drano. The tracks range anywhere from polished studio nuggets to demo 4-track recordings, to lo-fi live recordings complete with crowd noise. I found the songs very hit or miss, with no real standout tracks. Keeping with the standard compilation rule of including only previously unreleased songs, it seems to me that Kill Rock Stars could have dug a little deeper to find some good tracks.
I like indie rock just as much as the next hipster, and I own my share of Kill Rock Stars records, however I found this compilation very mediocre overall. Rather than whetting the appetite of someone trying to get acquainted with the Kill Rock Stars sound, this compilation is too disjointed and incohesive for the listener to draw any type of conclusion about whether Kill Rock Stars is offering him or her anything at all. It's kind of like going to a budget buffet after never eating out before; too many choices and none of them entirely good. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice tracks here, but you really have to wade through a lot of garbage filler to find them. I had to ask myself after the first listen if it was even worth the time required to go through the songs again. I did. And I'm glad I did because I found that some of the songs presented are worth the time, but keep your finger handy because you'll likely be skipping a lot of songs to get to the good ones. |
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