igotworms wrote:Down and Undone and Other Side should ALL have been on RA to make it a double album. It's got that double album feel about it - i.e a bit of a pick-and-mix, no overall theme - so they should have gone the whole hog.
I agree, weirdly. Even though I don’t care much for any of the Riot Act b-sides (or even some of the album tracks), I much prefer my expanded tracklisting over the released version as a listening experience. I don't like the flow of the original sequencing.
1. Arc
2. Love Boat Captain
3. Half Full
4. Save You
5. Cropduster
6. Down
7. Ghost
8. I Am Mine
9. Thumbing My Way
10. Green Disease
11. Can't Keep
12. Help Help
13. Get Right
14. Other Side
15. You Are
16. Undone
17. Bu$hleaguer
18. All or None
igotworms wrote:Down and Undone and Other Side should ALL have been on RA to make it a double album. It's got that double album feel about it - i.e a bit of a pick-and-mix, no overall theme - so they should have gone the whole hog.
Challenge accepted!!
Disc 1
1- Love Boat Captain
2- Green Disease
3- Down
4- I Am Mine
5- Ghost
6- You Are
7- Thumbing My Way
8- Save You
9- Half Full
Disc 2
1- Can't Keep
2- Undone
3- Bu$hleaguer
4- Get Right
5- Other Side
6- Cropduster
7- Help Help
8- Arc
9- All or None Hidden track: 4/20/02
Considering what was available for Riot Act this is what I would have done.
1. All or None
2.Sad
3. Ghost
4.Cropduster
5.Thumbing My Way
6.Down
7.I am Mine
8.You Are
9.In The Moonlight
10.Arc
11.1/2 Full
12. Undone
13. Get Rght
14. Education
15.Can't Keep
igotworms wrote:Down and Undone and Other Side should ALL have been on RA to make it a double album. It's got that double album feel about it - i.e a bit of a pick-and-mix, no overall theme - so they should have gone the whole hog.
Challenge accepted!!
Disc 1
1- Love Boat Captain
2- Green Disease
3- Down
4- I Am Mine
5- Ghost
6- You Are
7- Thumbing My Way
8- Save You
9- Half Full
Disc 2
1- Can't Keep
2- Undone
3- Bu$hleaguer
4- Get Right
5- Other Side
6- Cropduster
7- Help Help
8- Arc
9- All or None Hidden track: 4/20/02
igotworms wrote:Down and Undone and Other Side should ALL have been on RA to make it a double album. It's got that double album feel about it - i.e a bit of a pick-and-mix, no overall theme - so they should have gone the whole hog.
I agree, weirdly. Even though I don’t care much for any of the Riot Act b-sides (or even some of the album tracks), I much prefer my expanded tracklisting over the released version as a listening experience. I don't like the flow of the original sequencing.
1. Arc
2. Love Boat Captain
3. Half Full
4. Save You
5. Cropduster
6. Down
7. Ghost
8. I Am Mine
9. Thumbing My Way
10. Green Disease
11. Can't Keep
12. Help Help
13. Get Right
14. Other Side
15. You Are
16. Undone
17. Bu$hleaguer
18. All or None[/spoiler]
That's awesome as well. Ah, what could have been eh.
Down is a harmless, fun, little ditty but definitely does not fit in with the atmosphere and tone of Riot Act, which is built all around a mixture of darkly ominous textures and aggressive political revulsion for that context. For a band that didn't have a back catalogue of 'grunge anthems' it would have been a great crowd pleaser, acting like a reset button after a return from an encore break.
Although not to the same degree, something similar could apply for Undone, which sits well on Lost Dogs as a more upbeat number.
4/20/02 definitely works as a secret / bonus track. It has that painful and haunting set of vocals sitting on an off-kilter electric line - always made me think of someone working late into the night for a record, getting bored of what they were doing and just belting out gold in a period of procrastination.
Otherside, which I didn't initially like because I found the non-traditional vocal melody ill-fitting, actually is the track with legs. After about 3-4 years I've come to terms with that, mainly because I'd grown into being more interested in hearing more complex music than traditional pop structured music than ever, plus the disappointment of S/T and everything after drove me to go back and retread what I had missed from before. It has a gentle cadence and soft humming groove which is tonally well matched for the lyrical content, although I'd want a bit more dramatic musicianship out of the chorus (high hats and snare, fermata, that kind of thing) - It didn't surprise me, in hindsight, finding out that Ament had written it. It clearly lost out to You Are when the whomever it was came to the conclusion on how to structure Riot Act.
The only tracks that I reckon would have slotted into Riot Act had, ironically, already been released prior - tracks like Insignificance, Grievance, Soon Forget and Strangest Tribe. All from the same era, and there's an aspect of Binaural and Riot Act representing the last transitional period (in my opinion) of a band in its stride and its prime producing 5 star records, consistently well written and with a real purpose. Albums like Lightning Bolt and Backspacer, in comparison, ultimately come across like bands who are working in a zombie like canter with no interest in the quality of the output.
OmegaprimeVKM wrote:Down is a harmless, fun, little ditty but definitely does not fit in with the atmosphere and tone of Riot Act, which is built all around a mixture of darkly ominous textures and aggressive political revulsion for that context.
That's how I feel about Half Full. Doesn't fit in with the rest of the album at all, for me.
OmegaprimeVKM wrote:Down is a harmless, fun, little ditty but definitely does not fit in with the atmosphere and tone of Riot Act, which is built all around a mixture of darkly ominous textures and aggressive political revulsion for that context.
That's how I feel about Half Full. Doesn't fit in with the rest of the album at all, for me.
I get that from the first half of the track but the crescendo and outro are very Riot Act-esque. If it was between Cropduster and Ghost, you might not feel the same.
mikejasond wrote:Basically Green Disease and Help Help have no place on this album because Cropduster/Ghost and Get Right/You Are have already occupied the two roles they could be fulfilling. If Green Disease/Help Help occupied either of those two roles they'd be doing it much worse, but having all six bloats the album. Down/Undone saves it.
And removing Green Disease and Help Help also makes both those other song pairings stronger because you think if this is the fillery stuff this is actually pretty good.
I think you're least favorite Riot Act songs are my favorite Riot Act songs.
Same. I actually love all the songs he's trashing. "Cropduster" is my favorite Riot Act song by some distance. "Down" is simple-minded bullshit
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
Riot Act is so good as is, but if i was to make any change it would be removing green disease, its one of my overall least favorite songs. I dont know if anything needs to go in its place, its still a 14 song album by just cutting it, and im not sure if undone would fit in its spot, i cant hear how it would work in my head at the moment, but its the only b side that should have been on the album
The only songs I would take off are Thumbing My Way and All or None, which are both dullsville. Maybe Bu$hleaguer, but I like the “blackout weaves its way through the city” part.
LoathedVermin72 wrote:The only songs I would take off are Thumbing My Way and All or None, which are both dullsville. Maybe Bu$hleaguer, but I like the “blackout weaves its way through the city” part.
