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Better Than Ezra continues to build
excitement towards the release of their next studio album, Before
the Robots by releasing a compilation of Greatest Hits.
This record kicks off to a hot start with King of New Orleans,
which also had the number one slot on Friction, Baby and
keeps the energy up with their most popular hit, Good. This is a
smart move putting their two most popular hits right up front. I've always
thought King was the best opening track on any Ezra record.
At the Stars follows, and already it is
easy to notice band's maturity between the first three studio albums. This
is even more obvious with the return to Deluxe with the
single cut of In the Blood. The sound is totally different. This is
a track I would love to hear re-recorded someday. The amazing How
Does Your Garden Grow? favorite, Live Again comes next.
Extra Ordinary leads us to Rosealia's studio cut and the radio
hits Desperately Wanting and Misunderstood.
Next on this compilation is This Time of
Year, which Better Than Ezra hails as their campfire song. On
Deluxe, this song is given the unplugged acoustic treatment,
but after the acoustic intro, the French radio version "plugs in" and
becomes very much like the live version of this fan favorite. Continuing
the surprises is the slow ballad, Under You from HDYGG?.
I say surprisingly because this was never a fan favorite or played live
very often. Most likely this is included due to the band's sentimentality.
Next, Tremble is pulled off the
b-side/rarity album, Artifakt, and is followed by One
More Murder of X-The Files: Fight the Future Soundtrack
fame. The best treats are yet to come with the newly recorded Voodoo
version of Porcelain. While fans have had the pleasure of listening
to this version of the song live since 1998, they have gone with out an
official recording of the song until Live at the House of Blues
was released last year. This studio cut has been greatly anticipated,
and it is everything fans have hope for.
Another fan favorite, the band's cover of
Laid by James. This song has been covered live quite a few
times, and it is always nice to have new studio material. Closing out the
album is Wallflower from Artifakt. One of their first
songs, Wallflower is most likely included here for sentimental
reasons. While it is not a bad song, it is an interesting inclusion, but
definitely shows Better Than Ezra's versatility.
This is a good Greatest Hits
collection with very few exceptions. The older tracks from Deluxe
truly sound nothing like what the band has become, and while
preserving them here as originals is fine, the differences make the album
a difficult listen, and the songs don't blend well, with the exception of
Good. Of course the alternate cuts of these songs make for an
interesting listen, and the new studio cuts of Porcelain and
Laid are precious gems.
This is a great album to introduce someone to
Better Than Ezra, which is the point really. The new tracks
are there to get fans to buy the album. However the inclusion of
Wallflower at the end kind of spoils the record for me. Something like
WWOZ would have been a nice finisher, and both Particle from
HDYGG? and Briefly from Closer are sorely
missed and would have made this album outstanding. As it is, it's a pretty
good listen.
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