Prisoners of Love (3-disc Yo La Tengo retrospective)

[Davey]

Wow, anyone thinking of getting this? Just saw it mentioned in a rave review at http://www.shakingthrough.net/music/reviews/2005/yo_la_tengo_prisoners_of_love_2005.html. Guess it was just released on Tuesday and initially comes in either a 2-disc or 3-disc version, the third disc being the odds and ends and rarities type of thing. But that 2-disc retrospective looks golden! Lots of my favorites spread throughout. I love the way they avoided the cliched chronological tracklist like so many people steadfastly adhere to. Loosen up! Mix it up! Make it flow! Hehehe, guess most people here have all the YLT they want and need including myself, but just wanted to mention that this is the way compilations should be done. With love and care. Nice job!

Disc: 1
1. Shaker
2. Sugarcube
3. Barnaby, Hardly Working
4. Little Eyes
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Our Way To Fall
7. From A Motel 6
8. Swing For Life
9. Tom Courtenay
10. I Heard You Looking
11. You Can Have It All
12. Did I Tell You
Disc: 2
1. River Of Water, The
2. Autumn Sweater
3. Big Day Coming
4. Pablo And Andrea
5. Drug Test
6. Season Of The Shark
7. Upside-Down
8. Summer, The
9. Tears Are In Your Eyes
10. Blue Line Swinger
11. Story Of Jazz, The
12. Nuclear War (version 1)
13. By The Time It Gets Dark
Disc: 3
1. Stay Away From Heaven
2. Pencil Test - (previously unreleased)
3. Almost True - (previously unreleased)
4. Tom Courtenay - (acoustic)
5. Big Day Coming - (previously unreleased, demo)
6. Dreaming
7. Bad Politics
8. Blue-Green Arrow
9. Decora - (previously unreleased, acoustic)
10. Out The Window - (original version)
11. Weather Shy
12. Dreams
13. Autumn Sweater - (Kevin Shields remix)
14. Ashes On The Ground
15. Mr. Ameche Plays The Stranger
16. Magnet

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, since I have hardly anything by them...quite possibly...

[Davey]

Well, since I have hardly anything by them...quite possibly...
Guess I probably sounded kind of like a shill, but that wasn't my intent. I was just genuinely impressed at the depth and strength of the collection and the way it was layed out. Playing some of those songs in my head while looking through the tracklist made me smile a couple times at the song groupings. I can hear that beautiful Tears Are In Your Eyes flowing into Blue Line Swinger. Probably at least 5 years apart chronologically, but both from the same place in the heart. Looks like a lot of great pairings. Hope they didn't mess too much with the mastering because some of those records sounded great in their original form. Nice, relaxed, atmospheric and uncompressed sound. A sound you can pretty easily fall into at night, when they want you to.

I was just listening to the Tindersticks compilation I got a while back this morning and it's a good one too, but it is done chronologically. Which I don't particularly mind in that case because their style did change some through the 5 albums represented, going from that original moody mix of Nick Cave and VU and Leonard Cohen to a more upbeat R&B sound with the addition of some Al Green vibe and some female backup singers. Woulda been awkward to mix it up. The second disc coulda been mixed up with some odds and ends and b-sides including a very cool cover of that wonderfully downbeat Pavement song "Here" from Slanted and Enchanted that I hadn't heard before, but they went chrono on that disc too. Great collection, although they did unfortunately choose to mess with the mastering, adding a lot of compression to what were originally beautiful recordings :(

I was dressed for success
But success it never comes
And i'm the only one who laughs
At your jokes when they are so bad
And your jokes are always bad
But they're not as bad as this

Come join us in a prayer
We'll be waiting waiting where
Everything's ending here