Search - Riverdales :: Phase Three

Darn good!

Alex Nennig | New London, WI | 11/26/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"EDIT: This review is in reference to the original release of "Phase Three," the 12 track long album on 1-4-5 records, and NOT the Asian Man records reissue. Since amazon considers this version and the re-issue to be the same product, you can find my review for the Asian Man re-issue attached below this review.





Anyway...





This one is much better than Storm The Streets, as the songs are actually well written.



Its short (like 24 minutes or something like that), but its a good ride while it lasts. "Homesick" is now my favorite Riverdales song, "Look Me Up" and "I Believe In You And Me" are downright beautiful punk ballads that do a good job at capturing the naked honesty of similar Ramones songs like "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and "I Want You Around." It all ends with "Last Stop Tokyo" which is an absolutely great song. The rest of the album isn't as memorable, but its still pretty good, making for a solid listening experience. Overall its a darker album than the previous two, with a re-occurring theme of secret agent stuff poking its head up in some songs ("Last Stop Tokyo," "A.W.O.M," "Tick Tick Tick," "Sniper," etc).



I should also mention the production, which is stellar. Mass Gorgini did a great job, the production is loud and warm, without sounding over produced.



And they have a new drummer on this one, Dan Lumely from Squirtgun replaced Dan Sullivan. It doesn't really matter, they both did a good job. I bring it up because this means that of the four total people who have been in the Riverdales (a three piece band), three of them have had the name Dan. Weird.



Anyway, long story short, if you like the Riverdales, Screeching Weasel, and/or the Ramones, this is another good album to add to your collection. I still think the Riverdale's first album was their best (and will probably be the most memorable), but Phase 3 is a close second (with the semi-crappy Storm the Streets being a distant third). It's good stuff. Original album: 4 out of 5 stars.









This is my review for the ASIAN MAN RECORDS re-issue of "Phase Three."



Anyway...



"Phase Three" is a very good pop-punk album, marking a darker turn for the Riverdales, and delivering many many good songs in 24 short minutes.



This re-issue boasts that its "Completely re-mixed, re-mastered, re-done vocals, added harmonies, and 5 unreleased songs gives this album brand new life."



For starters, there's no new vocals recorded for the original 12 songs on the album, Ben Weasel corrected that mistake in a recent blog entry ("There was no reason to re-do them and we didn't have money for that anyway. There were five unreleased songs from the session, three ofwhich had never been completed. For two of those, I took the existing recordings and wrote new melodies and lyrics around them because I felt the original songs were weak. So we did vocals on three tracks, but none of them were on the original release."), so don't worry about the album having different singing or anything.



And that whole "re-mixed and re-mastered" bit? Darned if I can tell the difference, but the original was made in 2003 and issued on CD so what in the world would they have to remaster? Its not like it was only on vinyl or anything.



So none of that makes much of a difference.



The album does come with 5 bonus tracks, but most aren't worth going nuts over. "Phase Three" is a somewhat dark and world-weary album, so stuff like the happy, half-written "Countdown" and "Total Blockhead" sound like they'd fit better on "Storm The Streets." Why they included a faster, shorter version of "Mental Retard" on here I don't know. That song WAS on "Storm The Streets" and it sucks, it has no place on the album. "You Know You Do" is at least a little darker but its another half-written song. The only truly good song of the five bonus tracks is "Out For Myself" which is not only dark and brooding but also very very good.



Not that all of that would matter much if they had given us the twelve songs on "Phase Three" in the original album order and tacked the five bonus tracks on at the end, but they don't do that.



For some reason, the re-issue jumbles the original track order and sprinkles the 5 extra tracks in with the others, resulting a very different listening experience compared to the original. It honestly wrecks the original mood of the album with the happy stuff sprinkled in the original darker material, and I'm at a loss as to why they chose to do it this way since the re-issued self titled debut had the album in its original track order and the bonus stuff attached to the end.



"Phase Three" is still a good album, but if you get it, re-arrange the tracks on your mp3 player like this:



1. Homesick

2. A.W.O.M.

3. Sniper

4. Lead The Way

5. Out Of My Heart

6. Look Me Up

7. Wait It Out

8. Get Away

9. Tick Tick Tick

10. I Believe In You And Me

11. Party At The Beach

12. Last Stop Tokyo

BONUS TRACKS

13. Countdown

14. Total Blockhead

15. Mental Retard

16. Out For Myself

17. You Know You Do



That way you'll hear it the way it originally was, the way it was meant to be. Reissue: 3 out of 5 stars."