{"id":3222,"date":"2012-10-26T05:27:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T09:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=3222"},"modified":"2012-10-26T05:27:37","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T09:27:37","slug":"album-review-shoes-35-years-the-definitive-shoes-collection-1977-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/10\/26\/album-review-shoes-35-years-the-definitive-shoes-collection-1977-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Shoes – 35 Years: The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As Shoes<\/strong> bassist John Murphy<\/strong> told me in our wide-ranging four-part interview<\/a>, the new 21-cut compilation on Real Gone Music, 35 Years: The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012<\/em> is \u201cis a sort of Part Two to Shoes Best<\/em>,\u201d<\/em> the 1987 collection released on Shoes’ own Black Vinyl Records. That’s about right; assuming one doesn’t plan to (or hasn’t yet) picked up all of the albums in Shoes’ catalog, those looking for a solid overview will probably want both.<\/p>\n

And I’d take slight issue with the compiler’s user of the word definitive. Any Shoes collection that leaves off \u201cI Don’t Miss You\u201d by definition falls short of that term. But what 35 Years<\/em> is, is a terrific overview. Drawing from all of the group’s albums except their early effort One in Versailles<\/em> and their 1995 live set Fret Buzz<\/em>, 35 Years<\/em> culls the winningest tracks from their consistently-engaging body of work.<\/p>\n

Shoes’ musical vision was established early; there’s not a world of difference in music approach, lyrical subject matter or production style between the big-budget major-label cuts from Present Tense<\/em> (representing nearly a fourth of the material on 35 Years<\/em>) and \u201cSay It Like You Mean It\u201d from their 2012 return, Ignition<\/em>. But that’s not a band thing: the Zion, IL group figured out the best means of getting their powerpop songs across, and when it works \u2013 which is most all of the time \u2013 it works remarkably well.<\/p>\n

The brothers (John and Jeff Murphy<\/strong>) and Gary Klebe<\/strong> each have their own vocal personality, thus imbuing their songs with the personality of the lead singer on each track. But the vocal blend \u2013 partly that ineffable brothers thing; see also: the brothers Gallagher<\/strong>, Davies<\/strong>, Everly<\/strong> and so on \u2013 adds a special something, a Shoesiness<\/em> if you will. The timeless quality of their songs is only occasionally betrayed by a dated element (a spot of electric sitar, or gated reverb on the drums, for example), but Shoes have always been far less guilty of trendiness than their contemporaries, so 35 Years<\/em> can be listened to with unabated pleasure, and not the guilty kind.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if it’s been remarked upon elsewhere, but viewing the song titles in Shoes’ catalog as a whole reveals a subtle penchant for in-jokes. At least that’s what I see when I view titles like \u201cI Miss You\u201d and \u201cI Don’t Miss You,\u201d and \u201cToo Late\u201d and \u201cToo Soon.\u201d But who knows: maybe that’s all coincidence.<\/p>\n

There aren’t any rare or unreleased Shoes tracks on this set, nor is including such part of the compilers’ goal here. What that means in practical terms is that the softer Propeller<\/em> version of \u201cA Thing of the Past\u201d is included rather than the harder-rocking (and, I say, better) version that appeared on the various-artists Yellow Pills Vol. 1<\/em>. But nay self-respecting powerpop fan will have tracked down that now-rare comp in any event.<\/p>\n

Steven \u201cSpazz\u201d Schnee<\/strong> (yeah, I don’t know either) has penned a good overview of the band’s career, and quotes from all three Shoes provide that all-important they-were-there angle.<\/p>\n

As far as value-for-money, 35 Years: The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012<\/em> can’t be beat. Perfectly balancing the sweet and sour, the rocking and melodic, jangle and crunch, Shoes’ oeuvre is a high point of its genre. And 35 Years<\/em> is a succinct, hour-plus look at it.<\/p>\n

Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on \"\" Twitter<\/a> and get notified
\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Shoes bassist John Murphy told me in our wide-ranging four-part interview, the new 21-cut compilation on Real Gone Music, 35 Years: The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012 is \u201cis a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,55],"tags":[1796,1948],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-powerpop","tag-real-gone-music","tag-shoes","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-55-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}