This is it right here!
'Where You Been' is jam packed with goodness, lets have a track by track run down:
'Out There' - A mid-tempo number that features amazing layered distorted 'crunchy' guitars! This songs starts out the album perfectly with a great intro guitar solo! Usually with a DJ song one has to wait a few chorus and verses in to get to Js solo, but not here!
Also the video is awesome, it has J on top of a friggin' mountain like he is some kind of guitar god of the mountains!!
'Start Choppin'' - A decent pop song and for awhile it was the song that DJ was most known for. Because of that they didn't want to play it in concerts for awhile because many Alt Rockers don't want to be all popular and stuff which seems sort of self-defeating, but they actually have come full circle and are starting to play it live again now. I think this music video was the first time I was ever exposed to DJ so I like it for that reason.
'What Else Is New' - My favorite DJ song on my favorite DJ album! I worship the drums and bass on this song, it is all bottom-endey and stuff and reminds me a lot of Juliana Hatfields song 'Lost and Saved' It is another one that starts out with an awesome guitar solo too! I have never really cared for the second half of the song though where it goes acoustic and gets all mellow though, but you have to end a song some how I guess.
'On The Way' - A more up-tempo punkish number to speed things up on this album and it makes sense because the first few tracks are a little slow-ish
'Not The Same' - Whoa! J takes a big risk and goes all experimentalistic with this song. Acoustic guitar and Timpanis? This was a major departure from the trademark noise rock sound that J had usually churned out. First few listens it is not that great, but after listening to this song... oh probably at least 100 hundred times by now (hey it is my 2nd favorite album all time folks!) I have grown to appreciate its downer-vibe. Also since I am not a hormone addled teen anymore and am now a little calmer adult I have come to appreciate the creative risk that was involved in this track
'Get Me' - Surprisingly I didn't know until years later that this song was released as a single... and with a music video to! I have really grown to like this song, it really is the sort of 'Ear Bleeding Country' that DJ had first envisioned themselves as sounding like.
'Drawerings' - This song is really just sort of a rehash of 'Get Me' but the two songs do complement each other pretty well. I think of it as 'Get Me 2.0' now that we are in the internet age!
'Hide' - This is the closest DJ comes to heavy metal most of the time! This song helps to up the tempo of the album as a whole. I just like the whole flow of 'Where You Been'!
'Goin' Home' - A real mellow acoustic number. DJ had just started making songs like this with this album so it is a real triumph for DJ to grow as a band and make a song like this!
'I Ain't Sayin' - A great album closer! Js lead guitar on this one is epic and makes the song!
'Keeblin' - Why didn't this B-side make it on the record? Were they not confident about it? Didn't want to release an acoustic guitar only type song yet as they had just started venturing down that path? Still I am glad it is on the remastered version I have! It is one of my favorite DJ songs, damn it is HEAVY brother! I don't think J had written such a deep song until he had written this one.
Speaking of the re-mastered version, it is freakin' awesome! It sounds so much better then the olden version. The old version didn't really stand up all that well compared to some other major label alt rock albums (like say 'Nevermind') but now this remastered version certainly does. Frankly I think this album can go toe to toe with 'Nevermind', I am serious! 'Nevermind' doesn't have anything like 'Not The Same' on it!
Heck I even like the album cover! It is all darkish and really matches the vibe of DJs music. Also the Space Alien on the back is cool too. It is all blueish and stuff. Hey that is my favorite color! Also having an Alien on there was very cool for that time period, like the X Files was popular around that time. Hard to believe that the Alt Rock slackers of DJ might have actually followed a trend! But still it is cool ya' know.
No comments:
Post a Comment