Search - Shack :: Time Machine: Best Of Shack

REM? - No way!!!

James R. Parrett | toronto, canada | 11/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Another reviewer mentioned Shack sounding like REM. Nothing could be further from the truth. Shack makes penetrating music that on the surface sounds almost blase but repeated listenings reveal s melodic depth reminiscent of quality bands like Love and the Byrds. This is not music to be played on toy personal stereos and then forgotten. You simply can't forget the haunting refrains and gorgeous hooks of this band. My only complaint is that this collection is not as good as the haunting majesty of the actual albums. However, Time Machine is a tasty sampler that will hook any discerning listener. Then, try the albums. H.m.s. Fable or Waterpistol One thing for sure. This is NOT disposable music."

GREAT Band - "Best of..."? I Don't Think So!

W. Wilson | Boxborough, MA | 11/19/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For me, there's no getting around it - since 2000, I have had to buy all of Shack's CDs and vinyl. And I'm glad that I had most of them before the release of _Time Machine,_ a so-called "best of" Shack. I may not get this simply because I have all but one song ("I Know You Well"). I live in the U.S., and _Time Machine_ is an expensive import.



Nonetheless, I genuinely hand it to Sour Mash, the band's current label fronted, I believe, by Oasis' Noel Gallagher, for providing this buffet. I hope that it will convert enough fans to at least keep Shack in cups of (nonspiked) tea and cakes.



The first track, "I Know You Well," holds up amazingly well despite its dating from about 1990; it's a bonus track on the Japanese import version of the band's first album, _Zilch,_ released in 1988 on the Ghetto label. I have read that this first album might be re-released in late 2007; not sure it will contain the many bonus tracks (including two other mixes of "I Know You Well") that appear on the expensive Japanese pressing that's out there now. We can also hope that it's been remastered.



Right away I have to ask why "Who Killed Clayton Square?" isn't on _Time Machine._



It's simple: Shack has too many great songs for even a representative slice of them to appear on one disc. No selection would be fair. (How about a box set then, eh?)



It's great that "Comedy," and several other tracks from arguably the band's best effort to date, _H.M.S. Fable,_ appear here. However, I tend to listen to _Fable_ all the way through. To hear the songs interspersed as they are on _Time Machine_ can be a little jarring.



I view _Fable_ as a set of two kinds of songs: ones that can stand by themselves (i.e., "Natalie's Party"), and a second group of loosely related songs about the ups and downs of two people trying to make it work: e.g., frustrations about getting on each other's nerves ("Pull Together"), "Lend's Some Dough" (getting money whatever way possible to satisfy an addiction), and "Captain's Table" (the rush of euphoria from scoring and using the drug...a sort of alternative universe "Comfortably Numb," without the Roger Waters theatrics). Then, "I Want You," and several other songs from the tail end of _Fable,_ seem like uneasy reconciliation between the two people in the preceding song stories. Again, not every track on _Fable_ is about the two people; it's not a concept album per se, but it has always seemed that way to me.



I'm not sure under what label the band was recording for the release of their single, "Oscar," but the omission of this song on _Time Machine_ is simply unjust, as is the omission of "Byrds Turn to Stone" from _Here's Tom with the Weather,_ as well as "Hazy" and "Dragonfly" - personal favorites of mine - from 1995's _Waterpistol._ I realize that copyright laws and permissions may have gotten in the way of including "Oscar" here. But one hasn't really given Shack a chance until hearing the tale of "Oscar" (a character that, oddly enough, reminds me of an amalgam of T-Bag and Haywire from the TV show _Prison Break._ Really, it is strange - wasn't Haywire trying to get to Holland?).



Shack's best songs are about anti-heroes and about the fascination with the everyday. Nothing in everyday life is too mundane for Michael Head's pen. And I hope to hell he keeps writing more songs in this vein. If there can be such things as antiheroes, can there be anti-"lifes" too? After all, isn't sitting in front of the TV with a cooked frozen dinner a valid choice, per the existentialists?



So, to sum, if you like the set on _Time Machine,_ you're likely to find even shinier gems when you listen to the entire albums from which these songs are culled.



Of course, you could always wait to see if a box set appears. Me? I'm not taking that chance, even if it means buying a CD for just one song. Maybe.



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