Search - Myracle Brah :: Super Automatic

The great stuff is here, but ...

Peter Olafson | La Jolla, CA USA | 01/29/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A respectable 12-song sampler of Myracle Brah's first three albums, with one unreleased track--and another that wasn't released at the time--tacked on as a bonus. Most of the Baltimore band's pre-Bleeder classics are here: "Whisper Softly" and "Inside of You" from 1998's Life on Planet Eartsnop, "Isn't It A Crime?" from 1999's Plate Spinner, and "Message '78," "I'd Rather Be" and "Madaliene" from 2000's The Myracle Brah. That's a spectacular half-a-CD right there. You can quarrel a bit with song selection in the other half. The compilers could have picked from Eartsnop blindfolded and still come up with great songs 90 percent of the time, and "Action Reaction" (think the Who in '69) and "Good Day to the Night" are as good as any. But "Can't Explain"-ish solo notwithstanding, "Loli, La Letta" has always struck me as a great lick--"Day Tripper" turned on its side--in search of a song. (What about ""Just Because" or "Bitter Thing"?) Similarly, "When She Cries" from The Myracle Brah for me lacks the edge that has always separated Myracle Brah from featherweight powerpop bands. I'd have voted instead for "Smile" (Billy Joel at his best), "Dying 310" or the bluesy rocker "Hey Now."

And Plate Spinner is just under-represented. The psychedelic epic "Albert S. Hand" is here, as is the Beatlesque closer, "Slip Away." But where's the guitar extravangaza "Mr. Tuesday Man," "Hearts on Fire" or the wonderful Zombies homage/rip-off, "Treat Her Right"?

Myracle Brah devotees will already have these songs, but will want Super Automatic nevertheless for the unreleased tracks--presumably from the sessions for the then-in-the-works Bleeder. (One of them, "The Way You Are," appears in the handwritten track listings on the back cover of that CD.) File "Way" (which later appeared on the CD single "Song 37") with leader Andy Bopp's '80s-inspired gems. (The Cars minus the synth?) And "Umbrella Girl" is a jangly treasure that suggests the later Records--and then sells itself indelibly with a brief acoustic insert toward the end. And the end itself is perfect."