Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Archers Of Loaf - Vee Vee LP - Green Vinyl w/ Pennant

Merge Records (2012 Reissue)

While for me, Vee Vee never quite reaches the heights of Archers' debut record, Icky Mettle, Vee Vee is easily the 2nd best album in their arsenal. They're still playing bombastic noise filled pop songs, chugging away beneath Eric Bachman's raspy howl. Truly great stuff, but for me, this was the last Archers of Loaf record that I loved. Everything that followed Vee Vee was a notch below, but instead of dwelling in that doom & gloom, let's celebrate what a great record Vee Vee is.

Merge's reissue is pretty good. Green vinyl, I like it. Re-done artwork, looks pretty good. I like the original art better, but I do really like it when labels make reissues definitively different than the originals. Where Merge drops the ball is the same way they dropped the ball on their Icky Mettle reissue. The CD version has an entire 2nd disc of bonus tracks, on the vinyl these tracks are relegated to download only status. That infuriates me. I cannot imagine there is a single person buying this album that wouldn't have happily paid more for a 2xLP with all the bonus tracks. Lame Merge, very lame. But on the plus side, kudos to Merge for making the pennant again, I'm going to hang it up at work and mystify my co-workers...

Archers Of Loaf - Harnessed In Slums:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8heCttqF3E

Archers Of Loaf - Greatest Of All Time:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cBgM4-bfg

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