[.ca] Normal Years

there is the hungry owl:
Essentially this album is messy. Quite messy. Now, it's not an oblong box that yells at you for not exercising enough, because that's not messy. It is instead more like a bunch of eraser & pencil shavings thrown on a pile of loose-leaf shredded paper. Owning is worth it solely for the reason of having it. If you like Built to Spill then you can find something in this album that will have similar worth to the rest of the stuff you like. Then, of course, if you are a flimsy character with little respect for the world and its creations, get you to hell. But, in the album there is little album to listen to, which should be expected being an outtake-box, for example some songs just seem to exist for a reason, not a good reason, but just a reason. The reason similar to why the word 'characteristics' is spelt with 3C 1H 2A 2R 2T 1E 2I & 2S, you see we could probably spell this word differently, maybe with better style or efficiency, but we have not and probably will not. This is just the way the language happened to work. And this album has a lot of letters in it that maybe should have been exchanged for better letters, but at least we can see the development of the current spelling. So if you like the spelling of the word 'characteristics' or at least appreciate some of the combinations of the letters in the word, then you can probably find something in this album you enjoy.

not bad, expected better:
I got this cd without knowing much about the band but with high expectations. It isn't bad, but it sounds kinda forced to me. But, what do I know? It'll go in my "listen to once every couple of months" pile.

The good, the bad, and the bad.:
Even for the outtake collection of one of the greatest bands ever, the quality of a few of these tracks is really surprising: easily matching the best song on TNWWL, Stab -- but for the outtake collection of one of the greatest bands ever, there's an astounding quantity of throwaways. Let's focus on the positive first. So & So, Terrible/Perfect, and Some Things all rank with Stab as the best stuff that Doug Martsh had recorded up until that time. It's a wonder that they did not in fact end up on There's Nothing Wrong, though to be sure they would have stolen a bit from the quaint personality of that album: and So & So in particular, with it's plaintive mood and bouncy but precise guitar-work, might have stood a chance on Alternative radio. As it is, these songs are surprising gems that, along with other solid tracks like Sick and Wrong and Joyride, elevate this collection far above a simple piece of interest for completists. But it is pointless to rate this album just as an outtake collection. So let's talk about the bad. There are two duds (Shortcut and Girl), two inferior duplicates of TNWWL tracks, and Still Flat, which gets on my nerves because it starts great but by the end is a complete bore. On paper, these five flawed tracks might not seem so terrible, but they have a way of getting together and really dominating the mood of the album. There is, in the end, little point to listening to Normal Years all the way through.

Some Good Stuff:
I like this album very much. I do think it is weaker than other albums, but I have a sentimental attachment to the song "joyride." Still, despite being less coherent than the other albums, this is still a great album in comparison to a lot of other music. If it comes down to this and something else, get this.

For completists:
This is OK. It has some good stuff, some interesting stuff, and stuff that should have been left on the cutting room floor. I'd say only BTS die-hards should buy it. It's not bad, but it's not top-quality.

• So & So So & So from Wherever Wherever
• Shortcut
• Car
• Some Things Last a Long Time
• Girl
• Joyride
• Some
• Sick & Wrong
• Still Flat
• Terrible/Perfect