Customer Reviews

Juggernaut Rides 89-98

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There is no middle ground with Swervedriver fans. You either haven't heard of them or you love them. And though my collection of Swervedriver albums and b-sides and 7 inch records certainly gives me many reasons to love them, this double CD gives me two more.

Swervedriver played their cards pretty much perfectly here. They have thrown together (almost) all their "hits" and included most of the best b-sides over the years, plus a few unreleased gems. They have opted not to do so in chronological order, but that choice merely highlights their diversity instead of showing their evolution. The only really notable exclusions in my opinion are the b-sides "Flawed" and "Laze It Up", but one can't expect to get all the rare tracks onto two CDs.

For the starter not familiar with Swervedriver, there is "Son Of Mustang Ford", "The Birds", "Duel", "Kill The Superheroes", "The Hitcher", "These Times", and "99th Dream". For those already in love with the band, there are all the good singles previously only available in 7 inch form ("My Zephyr", "Mars", "Why Say Yeah", and "93 Million Miles From The Sun") here on CD for the first time. There are also a few officially unreleased tracks that have been floating around the bootleg circuit for a while.

The demo version of "Mustang Ford" closes the second CD. This is Swervedriver in its pre-produced, lo-fi, balls-to-the-wall, rock n roll glory, and this version clocks in at over 7 minutes. The preceding song, "Just Sometimes", is a bit of a repetitive throwaway but for the beautiful Adam Franklin riff on guitar. "Over" is a two part track, blistering you in "Mustang Ford" fashion for the first few minutes before zoning off into Shoegazer Land. "Neon Lights Glow" is easily the best unreleased track on the record. It includes the token Swervedriver guitars and the use of strings also previously attempted with "Last Day On Earth" (which is strangely absent from this collection). However, the use of strings here seems to be more in line with the usual Swervedriver oddities than it was on the more conventional "Last Day". This song is a completely brilliant eight minutes of bliss and is worth the price of the CD alone for hardcore fans.

So here's what you get with the CD besides a nice write-up in the CD booklet and a diagram of their various guitar pedal setups (which is an extremely cool addition for guitar players).

Disk 1

"Son Of Mustang Ford" - The single that started it all and the first Swervedriver song I ever heard on MTV's "120 Minutes".

"Planes Over The Skyline" - "Duel" single b-side. Brilliant guitar work as always, though a bit repetitive.

"The Birds" - In my opinion the most sing-along-able of all Swervedriver songs. Weird pop perfection.

"Duel" - Magnificent. Whenever that guitar changes for the chorus, my hair stands up on the back of my neck. That sound has never been successfully imitated before or since, or at least not to the same effect. This is the shortened single version.

"Why Say Yeah" - From the split 7 inch single with Sophia. A very good song though Sophia's "So Slow" on the other 7 inch was better!

"Scrawl And Scream" - An always underappreciated single from the "Never Lose That Feeling" and "Reel To Real" EPs. If memory serves correctly, this is a slowed down and superior version of "Afterglow", another b-side (not included in this collection).

"Rave Down" - A classic with another unforgettable guitar progression.

"How Does It Feel To Look Like Candy?" - A great song except that the horns drive me absolutely crazy. It could be me, but they seem lower in this mix.

"Blowin' Cool" - Another underappreciated dandy from "Mezcal Head", though I would have rather seen "Girl On A Motorbike".

"The Other Jesus" - Such a simple yet driving bassline, as well as crazy guitar interplay.

"Juggernaut Rides" - An early b-side that is as great as all their b-sides.

"For Seeking Heat" - The opener from "Mezcal Head". If this doesn't get your attention, you are likely dead.

"These Times" - This is the album version and the not the faster version that many people are fonder of. Regardless, a good song is a good song no matter what the pace.

"The Hitcher" - A fantastic b-side made even more amazing only in that Adam Franklin actually improved the song when he stripped it down for an acoustic rendition on one of his Toshack Highway EPs. Definitely a Top 5 b-side from a band that has as many great b-sides as The Cure and in a shorter period of time.

"My Zephyr" - Another 7 inch only release until now. Another great song with some really creative guitar work.

"Last Train To Satansville" - The great cowboy tale told Swervedriver style. I guess it depends on your mood if you think you were shortchanged on this one. Sometimes you love the extended outro and sometimes you don't. This version is only 3:30.

"Kill The Superheroes" - The song many Swervies would claim to be their all-time favorite, and it's a b-side. Adam Franklin's guitar work here is nothing short of mind-boggling. How he could think to use those riffs and put a vocal melody over it is truly the work of a genius...or a madman. This version is a bit shortened too, as it clocks at just over 6 minutes (regular version was 7 minutes I think).

"Behind The Scenes Of The Sounds And The Times" - I think it's odd that they'd throw this one right after "Kill The Superheroes" because the beginnings of both songs are so similar. This is another brilliant tune and probably my favorite off of "99th Dream". By the time that album rolled out, the switches and sounds Swervedriver used in this song were becoming more and more rare.

"Never Lose That Feeling" - The last song on the US version of "Mezcal Head". This version is without the second half "Never Learn" portion, so instead of nearly 12 minutes with both those songs sandwiched together, this one is a more tame 4 minutes.

Disk 2

"99th Dream" - The opener and title track from "99th Dream". Great tune and Swervedrive somehow seamlessly incorporates surf rock into their repertoire.

"Sandblasted" - An early shoegazer hit.

"Maelstrom" - A b-side from the "Last Day On Earth" EP.

"93 Million Miles From The Sun And Counting" - A slowed and shortened version of "Harry And Maggie", one of my favorite Swervedriver songs. Hearing this one on CD and in its full glory makes me think that they were right to put this one on the collection. It may actually be superior.

"Ejector Seat Reservation" - Title track of the third CD. This song has more in common with the preceding albums than it does the album that bears its name.

"Over" - I think this is a very early demo, probably from around the "Mustang Ford" demo time. Stylistically it has much in common with that time. As stated above, this is a first part hard rocker, second part shoegazer.

"Duress" - One of the highlights of their live shows and the ultimate zone out song. This one has been shortened by about 30 seconds.

"Mars" - From the same 7 inch single as "My Zephyr". One of the better b-sides out there.

"Neon Lights Glow" - As stated above, an until-now unknown masterpiece. This must've not made it onto a regular CD due to time constraints only since it is nearly 8 minutes long.

"Sci-Flyer" - The first song on their first album. It's so good a band out in California decided to name themselves after it. Can't say I blame them.

"Cars Converge On Paris" - Ahhhh. Some songs are just perfect to go to sleep to. "Duress" is pretty good for that purpose, but it may give you nightmares. This one will make you dream happy dreams. Another perfect b-side.

"Deep Seat" - Probably the song I listened to the most from "Raise". A slow and plodding rocker with great riffs.

"Just Sometimes" - An unreleased track that is the weakest link on the CD. But at just over 2 minutes long, it isn't enough to aggravate me and I'm thankful they put it on here since I hadn't heard it before.

"Son Of Mustang Ford (demo)" - Seven minutes of Swervedriver rocking harder than they have since. This version is much more raw and aggressive than the album track. It's also a bit funny at times with all the "yeah"s that they use to punctuate certain parts of the song.

So there you have it. Thirty-three tracks total. If you're a Swervedriver fan who has all their stuff already, well you know you'll have to get this eventually so you might as well do it now. If you're not much of a fan but remember a few songs from them or don't, this is a good place to start. The price should not be a deterrent. This stuff is so vastly superior to anything else on the airwaves now it isn't even funny. Add it to your collection and you can become a Swervedriver snob like the rest of us and feel cool that you know about them when none of your friends do.

Usually, if I have all of a band's albums, I don't buy their anthology. And I greatly dislike padding a "best of" with a couple of dodgy b-sides, live cuts, reunion cuts, or throwaway filler. Finding out about this (via Amazon's new releases) import excited me, however, to purchase it for the B-sides and unreleased songs I'd obviously never heard. The other reviewers have indicated helpful track info that the liner notes do not compile, although an entertaining overview of the band's history takes the place of track info, with engaging graphics, and a complete discography is included. By the way, I wasn't aware that the band had such a change in not only drummers but bassists, for the consistency of sound under vocalist/guitarist Adam Franklin and guitarist Jimmy Hartridge emerges in this intelligently organized, career-spanning, thorough collection.

The weaker drawn-out songs from Mexcal Head that detracted from that album's sonic force and the samy-sounding songs that appeared on their early releases are largely absent here. A drawback despite the high rating I give these 2 discs for effort is the tendency on the first disc to fall into a rather monotone drone after awhile. Despite non-chronological sequencing that tries to vary the pace, the effect on long stretches of disc one is more mood music than strong songs. This is not meant as a criticism of Swervedriver, but like their counterparts The Catherine Wheel (r.i.p.) this is music that you need to be in the groove for, or else it will fade a bit into the wallpaper. It does not always leap out at you, for the aggression mixed with texture that both of these bands excelled at combined with a surprisingly melodic vocal and lyrical delivery that you need to listen for to fully appreciate. The tunes assert themselves not by gimmickry or mere volume, but swells and crests.

The songs unfamiliar to those of us who had only heard the full-length domestic releases blend nicely with the others better on the second disc. It features fewer titles because some of these are longer. The quasi-psychedelic epic quality works to advantage, and while some of Disc 2 is less catchy, the hypnotic tendency of the shoegazing + swagger that made Swervedriver so rewarding is shown to better effect on this disc. The closing demo Son Of Mustang Ford refreshed what for many listeners to the band may have been a great song a bit dulled by so many of our spins! This second side of tunes, contrary to what I would have expected when scanning the selections, will be the one that I and perhaps longtime fans will actually grow to like more than the punchier, but more sonically similar, tunes on Disc 1.

Being a latecomer to Swervedriver, and with their records out of print, I found this compilation a great help as a companion to the live tracks on the web site, as well as a great listen in itself. The Swervies got lumped in with the other shoegazer bands, but were the hardest rocking and probably the most Americanized of the lot. The production on these records is incredible: a shimmering wall of sound as loud, deep and dangerous as the perfect ocean wave. I can hear their influence in later Soundgarden, Creeper Lagoon, and Garbage. (You can't tell me Butch Vig hasn't heard "How Does It Feel to Look Like Candy?" with its strange Bacharach interpolation predating Garbage's use of "Don't Worry Baby".)

Juggernaut Rides is a very nicely done compilation, and I wish someone would do the same for the Screaming Blue Messiahs. Has anyone else noticed that the chord progression for "Neon Lights Glow" is a clever theft of Link Wray's "Rumble"?

If there was ever a band which deserved far better than it got, Swervedriver is it. They never succeeded in breaking with the general public, and for that matter, even within the underground/indie scene I don't think they got quite as much recognition as they should have. Part of the reason was that they weren't easy to pigeonhole. They were neither pure shoegazer/indie nor pure hard rock, but combined the best elements of both genres. And the band's consistently awful luck with record labels didn't help either, proof positive that there's no God out there.

Even if you already have all of Swervedriver's CDs, and although this 2-CD retrospective ain't exactly cheap, it's still worth getting for a couple of reasons. One, the songs have all been remastered for this CD, and if any band deserves that kind of extra boost in their sound, it's Swervedriver. Two, many of the tracks on this CD are not album cuts but oddities and B-sides that didn't appear on any proper Swervedriver releases, and many of those songs are just as good as any of the songs on the band's proper album releases.

Obviously, as a double-CD best-of retrospective, it's meant to be an introduction to people just getting into Swervedriver. But really, you need to have all of their albums INCLUDING this one. If you're just getting into Swervedriver for the first time and you're thinking you need to start with a greatest-hits compilation, by all means start here. But sure as hell don't stop here.

Swervedriver was my favorite band in the early 1990s and is one of the only bands (along with Catherine Wheel, to a lesser extent) that I still listen to from my late high school/early college days. It took me a long time to get Juggernaut Rides as I was waiting for a deal from the Amazon sellers. It was definitely worth the wait and I would have bought it earlier as it would have been worth the extra money. I have all four of their albums but did not collect their singles, so all the B-sides are new to me and most of them are album-worthy. No obvious filler tracks or instrumentals which surprised me but, most everything Swervedriver ever recorded was quality stuff, so I should have expected it. Most of the album tracks on Juggernaut Rides are good choices BUT, if it were up to me, I would have made a few changes: From Raise I'd exchange "Deep Seat" for "Pile-Up"; from Mezcal Head, I'd exchange "A Change is Gonna Come" (I love that song!) for "Duress." One of the most glaring omissions is "Bring Me the Head of the Fortune Teller" off Ejector Seat Reservation. What a killer track! How could that be left off? "The Birds" can easily fly the coop for that track. I'd rather have "Last Day on Earth" instead of "How Does it Feel to Look Like Candy?," too. One of my favorite tracks from 99th Dream is "Up From the Sea" which I'd easily exchange for "Behind the Scenes of the Sounds & the Times." I also like "Expressway." Oh well, that just shows how awesome this band was. Some of the tracks here also fade out prematurely like "Duel" and "Last Train to Satansville" (actually, that is a good thing, as I think the instrumental ending on the original went way too long). Anyway, here are my reviews of the B-Sides and previously unreleased tracks:

"Planes Over the Skyline": (Duel B-Side) This was catchy right away and immediately recognizable by the second play. Very accessible but a little repetitive. I still really like this track.
"Why Say Yeah": (on a Swervedriver/Sophia disc with In My Time) Solid, guitar-dominated track.
"Scrawl & Scream": (Never Lose That Feeling B-Side) Laid-back, transporting song with cool guitar in between the vocal sets. Great track! One of my favorites!
"Juggernaut Rides": (Son of Mustang Ford B-Side) I don't like this track that much. It has too much of the good time rock n roll undercurrent for my tastes.
"The Hitcher": (A&M 6-track promo) Another version of "Never Lose That Feeling" but a bit more restrained.
"My Zephyr (Sequel)": (My Zephyr 7") I've never heard the original but this "sequel" rocks!! One of my favorites.
"Kill the Superheroes": (Son of Mustang Ford B-Side) Starts out with flying drums. It rocks like Zephyr but has a more open, catchy sound. Cool little guitar quirks. Then the drums slam in again with pretty little guitar riffs sprinkled in. There is a lot of depth to this track which is another of my favorites.

"Maelstrom": (Last Day on Earth B-Side) Laid-back vocals pushed by driving drums. OK.
"93 Million Miles From the Sun...and Counting": (7" with Up from the Sea) Slower, stripped down version of "Harry & Maggie" from Mezcal Head.
"Over": (previously unreleased) Raw rocker then moves into a slow, psychedelic experience.
"Mars": (from My Zephyr 7") Dreamy at first, then rocks. Another version of "Sunset" from Raise.
"Neon Lights Glow": (prev. unreleased) Definitely my favorite of the previously unreleased tracks. I found myself humming along to this track right away. Relaxing, dreamy song with the coolest guitar riffs. Everything that made Swervedriver great!
"Cars Converge on Paris": (A&M 6-track promo) Another slow, relaxing, lazy track.
"Just Sometimes (Song of Laughter and Forgetting)": (prev. unreleased) This song I definitely wouldn't mind forgetting. Very annoying and repetitive but, fortunately, very short.
"Son of Mustang Ford (1989 Demo)": (prev. unreleased) Wow, I really like this version! There's a lot of different stuff going on in the guitar riffs. The ending guitar piece is also very nice. It takes the Swervedriver classic in a different direction and runs over 7 minutes.

I'm really glad this CD came out. The booklet has photos and a history of the band as well as pix of the singles and track listings for the singles as well as musician credits for all the tracks. A very impressive package although the duel CD case is a bit difficult to use. A well-deserved posthumous tribute to the best band of the 1990s who deserved better from the record industry while they were putting out new music.

My brother an I both have been longtime Swervedriver fans. From their popular American release of Mezcal Head all the way to Adam Franklin's solo release of Toshack Highway. We back tracked and bought up the albums we missed, and even managed to track down a few EP's. We have been fans of the transforming sound of Swervedriver.

Juggernaut Rides is a fitting final chapter for a band that experimented and dabbled ever so precariously on the razor's edge of rock and roll. A double CD release, think of it as the "A-Sides" of Swervedriver, but also packed with many previously unreleased songs. The very best of what the band has to give, PLUS some exciting tracks never before heard on any of their other offerings. The line up is strong, and the tracks flow very well. Adam Franklin's voice is as haunting as it is forceful as it is melodic... easily fitting the tempo and style of whatever the band chooses for its transformation.

The downside to this compilation, is that the songs are played in their "radio shortened" versions. So great songs like "Last Train To Satansville" and "Never Lose That Feeling" feel cut and raped as their long jam sessions at the end of those songs are simply deleted, never to be heard or enjoyed by an audience perhaps listening for the first time.

Juggernaut Rides is an excellent way for Swervedriver to put an exclamation point on the end of a stellar and groundbreaking career.

C. Elliott Anderson

As a longtime Swervedriver fan, I of course was very excited when I heard this was coming out. I would easily rank them as one of the greatest and most innovative bands in rock n roll history. It is a bold statement, but few have broke new ground in such a way. The Beatles, Jimi, Pink Floyd, The Clash and yes Swervedriver have made modern music much more interesting. Anyone reading this that hasn't listened to Swervedriver should at least give this or any album a try. For Swervie fans, there are many unreleased gems to find to get you humming new songs. Well worth it to buy a few of these other songs again from past albums. Adam Franklin(lead singer/songwriter) has been playing solo acoustic shows lately and recording under the name Toshack Highway, you should definitely check it out!

Adam Franklin is a brilliant songwriter. Not only in his ability to deliver soaring, sonic masterpieces - but to incorporate themes and influences into musical mosaics that get under your skin...and stay there.

Swervedriver - thoughout their career and line-ups - were brilliant. A group that was labeled as everthing from shoe gazer, to indie, to dream pop, to punk rock, to brit pop, they not only defined genres...they eclipsed them - leaving their contemporaries in their wake.

This is a great collection of music - but you really SHOULD own everything they have ever made (including Adam's Toshack Highway material).

If you want to get a great sample of the Swervy sound and awesome rare tracks to boot grab this Double album. It covers thier whole catalog quite well even though its missing some real killer tracks, but as a sample it is a good mix overall. Read the other reviews here for the blow by blow, because they have done a bang up job of it there is no need for me to say what they have already. Swervedriver just Rocks in a way that no other band has before or after them so pick this up and enjoy.

I love this compilation. I know that some choice morsels are missing here, but, unlike a lot of "greatest hits" collections, this really is quite comprehensive. It's nice to be able to hear the progression of the band through the different eras of Swervedriver on these disks. The term "shoegazer" may fit their onstage persona, but it doesn't do them justice, as their music reminds me of a road movie...free and without agenda.