Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Lots of reviews for Sufjan's new album of Illinois outtakes, The Avalanche, say the songs aren't as good as the ones on Illinois. Well, duh. Isn't that the point of an outtakes album? Wouldn't it be wrong if the best songs didn't make it on the album? As far as typical b-side albums go (which I usually avoid like the plague because, again, if a song is really good it should have ended up on the real album, right?), this one is definitely above average.

3 comments:

Mike H. said...

Amen. Above average, yes, but still *mostly* average. I do think that "Springfield" and "Henney Buggy" should have been given space on the proper release, maybe over Seers Tower and some of the other filler. Actually, the whole album should have been rearranged IMO.

Anonymous said...

I know it's a nerdy word, but They Might Be Giants' b-sides where as good or better as the ones on the album. They would say, instead of using b-sides as a dumping ground, some songs just didn't fit with the flow of the record.

Rob said...

I agree, I mean when a record has "Outtakes" in its title it is a little weird to say "These sound like songs that didn't quite make the album" or some such criticism...