punkrawka's Full Review: B-Sides & Rarities [PA] by Deftones
The Intro
Making a B-sides/rarities collection is always a tricky endeavor -- you're setting out to appeal principally to your hardcore fans, who have most likely already collected the tracks and are prone to take issue with your selections. The case is no different with the Deftones' aptly titled B-Sides and Rarities, a collection of the band's one-offs and videos spanning their whole career. The result is typical: A must-have for fans, with a few disappointing omissions, and limited appeal to the public at large.
The collection, packaged in a nice mini-book format, includes the audio CD of unreleased material, and a DVD cataloguing the band's full music video collection. The audio collection is the real goldmine for fans, who have probably struggled to collect expensive import singles and low-quality mp3 bootlegs until now.
The CD
While hardcore fans will likely jump straight to what isn't on this CD (for the record, a stellar cover of Depeche Mode's "To Have and to Hold," as well as Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" and the creepy B-side "Lovers"), there's a lot that is on here that bears special note.
First of all, most of these B-sides and covers do not carry the typical Deftones fusion of metal, punk, pop and hardcore. Instead, they wander all over the map, most carrying a distinct Deftones character, but none sounding like what fans are used to. Many of these efforts are covers, and while some may not be in the band's usual milieu, they generally do a good job of remaining faithful to the original's vibe while adding a unique twist. Great examples include the cacaphonic cover of Helmet's "Sinatra" and the moody, seductive remake of Sade's "No Ordinary Love," where vocalist Chino Moreno takes fans in a whole new direction.
Most of the covers are in this vein -- from a new twist on Jawbox's "Savory," aided by members of Far, to Duran Duran's haunting "The Chauffeur," to The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" and the Cocteau Twins' "Wax and Wane." In each of these, the Deftones find a way to breathe new life into an old tune with their own unique spin. Only a few covers fall flat, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd's overdone "Simple Man" (already killed by Shinedown last year), and The Cure's "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep," a mediocre song selection that doesn't jive smoothly with Moreno's vocal abilities.
There's also a light mix of unreleased and acoustic material thrown in. Most captivating among these are the acoustic remakes of "Change (In the House of Flies)" and "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" (again featuring Far's Jonah Matranga), and the previously unreleased "Crenshaw's Punch / I'll Throw Rocks At You," a moody, noisy mess of a song that grips the ears firmly. Puzzling is the unremarkable acoustic remake of "Digital Bath," already a quiet-vibe song, as well as "Black Moon," an unreleased collaboration with Cypress Hill's B-Real that doesn't mesh with anything else on the disc and is mediocre even in its own category. But the overall experience of the audio disc is a positive one for any committed Deftones fan.
The DVD
The DVD is extremely straightforward but something that hardcore fans will find quite valuable -- a collection of every Deftones video, sans any self-indulgent, rambling interviews or other needless filler. Spin up the DVD, and you can play all videos in succession, or go straight to one of your filling. And they're all there, from the gritty videos for Adrenaline's "7 Words" and "Bored" to the more polished efforts of "Bloody Cape," "Hexagram" and "Minerva" from the band's most recent self-titled effort. The videos are interspersed with little bits of bootleg live footage and short montages from each album -- interesting to break apart the videos, but not distracting in the least.
Of special note are the videos for "My Own Summer (Shove It)," where the band members play on floating platforms as sharks circle below, as well "Change (In the House of Flies)," with overdone but well-executed themes of masks at a party. The scenes of a menacing dog on a choke-chain during the heavy breakdowns in "Bloody Cape," or of Chino's trademark crowd-during in "Pink Maggit (Back to School)" are also distinctive moments. The much-hyped NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED VIDEO!!! for "Root" is just some spliced live footage -- not all that exciting, but worth including as a little something extra.
The Obligatory Summary
All in all, B-Sides and Rarities produces exactly what anyone might expect -- a must-have collection for fans (omissions and all), and something to which the public at-large will issue a collective shrug. Nonetheless, this isn't the kind of effort that aims to go multi-platinum, and Deftones fans who are sick of ponying up for import singles or shuffling through Enhanced CDs for videos will find this more than worthy of its cost.
A metallic rush of guitars and thundering drums, Deftones music both epitomizes the hard-and-fast glory of post-grunge alt-metal and blows it wide ope...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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