Regretfully Yours by Superdrag

As far as inoffensively bland mid-90s rock albums go, you can't do much better than Superdrag's first album, Regretfully Yours. You guys might remember their one and only hit, "Sucked Out," but the rest of the album thankfully maintains that same level of catchy, loud disdain. I heard the lead singer found Jesus or something and they broke up, but ultrafan Bryan can probably fill you in on that. Check this out and why not buy some clove cigarettes or get excited about a Roland Emmerich movie or whatever else was cool in 1996.

RATING: 78%

Senorita (EP) by Superdrag

Senorita is (chronologically) the second "important" Superdrag EP (behind The Fabulous 8-Track Sound of Superdrag). Five tracks, and, to be honest, the only one that matters at all is the first song and title track, which is a great song. The rest of the EP feels a little more like filler...generally speaking, all of the tracks run a little formulaic, and Nothing Good Is Real, well, was better as an album track, when it grows up a little. But while (the song) Senorita is total classic good John Davis songcraft the EP loses points on both quality and quantity.

On an aside, I really wish I could figure out how to add the tilde-n on this blog thing. Technology sux.

RATING: 48% (which is better than Arkansas, but worse than pizza)

Changin' Tires On The Road To Ruin by Superdrag

(Preface: I like Superdrag a lot and as such, I've decided I'm going to review all of their albums. I apologize in advance.)

Superdrag is a totally jangly rock band of awesome, and (technically) this is their most recent album, being a collection of unreleased tracks collected by Arena Rock Recording Company. As a collection of C-sides, early demos, and two live tracks, you can't expect to find their best work on here...however, a few tracks spring up as diamonds in the rough cuts. 'Relocate My Satellites' is driven hard by the rhythm section with great pacing and 'Here We Come' is a short, straightforward primer on the Superdrag sound. 'No Inspiration' sounds like a love letter to simple 60's rock. Oh, and lyrically, its still heads and shoulders above 90% of modern American rock music.

Weaknesses are songs like 'Doctors Are Dead' (not their best slow jam) and the demo version of 'Keep It Close to Me' (the demo lacks the drama and intensity of the album track).

As far as things go, it lacks some of the polish of full-length Superdrag albums like Head Trip In Every Key and In The Valley of Dying Stars, but Superdrag doesn't usually suffer from lack of production.

Because this is a review of a Superdrag album, people who know me very well will probably assume that I'll rate it highly.

Both of those people are right.

RATING: 78% (which means that it is better than the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and worse than Herr's Heinz Ketchup Chips)

Mixtapes

Thanks, iTunes - because of you I've been listening more and more to my own, hastily-put-together mixtapes rather than complete albums by a given artist. And (guess what?) I think I'm doing myself a severe disservice; I'm robbing myself of context and drama.

I'm not really advocating that we should go all Cultural Revolution on our mixtapes...the best of them have coherent themes (Bumpin' Beats For Clubs And Streets Mix), dramatic/emotional resonance (Ultimate Manatee Mix), or can be used to turn friends on/off to bands you enjoy (Bad Pop-Punk 2000 Mix). But no matter what, when I put a mix together, I will never get something as coherent as Superdrag's A Head Trip In Every Key, as clear as Ultimate Fakebook's This Will Be Laughing Week, or as dramatic as Muse's Black Holes and Revelations, never mind if I sprinkle the mix with the best songs from these (or other/different/better/worse) albums.

RATING: 62% (This means that it is better than overusing parentheses, but [ironically] worse than Guitar Hero, which is, in essence, an interactive mixtape.)

(image courtesy of thejsworld.com)