Customer Reviews

Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A fine primer for the uninitiated, or the perfect compilation for your cocktail party or condo association's elevator. This collection offers a taste of many of the things that made and make CVB such a pleasure; songcraft that ranges from punk to folk to rawk to ethnic to dissonance to savage beauty to subversively stupid and funny, often in a single song. No doubt the non-subliminal messages throughout this album will cause you and your friends to run out and buy all their other albums and concert t-shirts and pile their myspace pages full of inane comments. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So when Camper Van Beethoven decided to release a Best Of, the evil meanies at Virgin said no to the inclusion of songs from the 1988 and 1989 albums. Hence they were re-recorded for this collection. I can't imagine how frustrating that is for bands, to be told "no you can't use your songs". They still sound good though, some might not even notice. I personally had to take away a star since my most favorite song is missing, "Sweethearts". I remember listening to CVB alot in high school. I had a tape with Key Lime Pie on one side, and some Jesus And Mary Chain on the other. Truth be known a better match would have been with Violent Femmes or Uncle Tupelo. Alt-country punk is what I often think of CVB as. Anyway, this is a decent "hits" album, and their only one. Remember when you go bowling, take the skinheads.