1988-1991 Comp B Sides [Enhanced, Best of]

now, i know you're thinking 'when does the pixies stuff come in?' and the answer is right here. see, i read about kurt and i heard that one of his biggest influences was "the pixies". i had never heard any of their songs, didn't know who they were, anything. but to me at the time kurt was god so i went to the record shop and found this little beauty. when i popped the "complete b-sides" on, that was the last day i listened to any of my nirvana cd's, and that was over 6 months ago, and i've been listening to this (and the other pixies cds i got which are all brilliant)solidly.

ok, a bit about the music. track 1 is "river euphrates", and it is a more polished version of track 6 of "surfer rosa". i like this more than the "rosa" version, because the production is a lot easier on the ear, but the song is basically the same. vamos live, and in heaven follow, and after heariung these two songs, i finally realised what kurt had made the fuss about. in heaven is simple but staggering in terms of raw power delivered. many of the other songs are great, but the absolute standout tracks are those 3, followed by "bailey's walk", "the thing", and "into the white".

in a nutshell, then, this was the band that got me away from being obsessive about nirvana, and they did it on the strength of just this b-side album. good lyrics, good musicianship, lots of passion. great record.

This album features the single version of 'River Euphrates' a much better version than on the album, and the one you will always hear at the nightclubs. All the other singles up to the final Pixies album, Trompe Le Monde are on this album. It even has songs from the two alternate singles of 'Planet of Sound', one of which (US, I think) had the instrumental version of 'Letter to Memphis' and the other (UK / Australian version) had 'Theme from Narc' (from the video game).

I give this 4 stars because it is lacking a few things (but I am being very picky). Firstly, it has the live version of 'Vamos' from the Gigantic/River Euphrates single, but does not have the live versions of 'Planet of Sound' and 'Tame' that were on the Alec Eiffel single (and they are excellent!).

Also, it does not have the single version of 'Dig for Fire' which is very slightly different to the LP version (different intro). Also, I think 4AD could have dredged up 'Born in Chicago' off the Elektra anniversary CD and 'I can't Forget' from the 'I'm your fan' Leonard Cohen tribute. Although strictly not 'b-sides', they would really make this album complete.

Worth buying for a fan, for sure.