Details
Track Listing
1. Just Like Anyone
2. Cartoon
3. Closer to the Stars - (previously unreleased, live)
4. Somebody to Shove
5. Close
6. String of Pearls
7. Tied to the Tracks
8. Runaway Train
9. Sometime to Return
10. Misery
11. We 3
12. Without a Trace
13. I Will Still Be Laughing
14. Black Gold
15. Summer of Drugs
16. Candy From a Stranger
17. Stranger - (previously unreleased, live)
18. Can't Even Tell
19. Lonely For You - (previously unreleased, live)
Album Notes
Soul Asylum: Dave Pirner (vocals, guitar, horns, keyboards); Daniel Murphy (guitar, background vocals); Karl Mueller (bass); Sterling Campbell, Grant Young (drums).
Additional personnel: Joey Huffman, Ed Stasium, Ivan Neville, Jon Carin, Tim Ray, Booker T. Jones, Karen Grotberg, Henry Butler (keyboards).
Producers: Soul Asylum, Butch Vig, Lenny Kaye, Steve Jordan, Michael Blair.
Compilation producers: Lenny Kaye, Bruce Dickinson, Soul Asylum.
Recorded between 1988 and 1998. Includes liner notes by Lenny Kaye.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
The 2000 compilation BLACK GOLD: THE BEST OF SOUL ASYLUM is tilted in favor of the band's later work, with only four songs predating their 1992 commercial breakthrough. Therefore, this 19-track compilation is perhaps the best value for those fans of the band's early, scrappy, indie-label days (showcased on the brilliant "Cartoon" and "Just Like Anyone") who were so turned off by the mainstream omnipresence of GRAVE DANCERS UNION in the early '90s that they missed out on the pure pop joys of songs like "Somebody To Shove" and "Black Gold." The album also serves the useful dual function of condensing Soul Asylum's post-stardom albums, which are most politely described as "spotty," into their high points, and gathering some of the band's more obscure gems, like a terrific version of Victoria Williams' "Summer of Drugs" (from the SWEET RELIEF tribute) and the title track from their final album CANDY FROM A STRANGER, which perversely wasn't included on the album itself. This is a solid overview of an increasingly marginalized and underappreciated band.
Industry Reviews
3 stars out of 5 - ...These songs are full of pathos and are often memorably melodic...
Q (12/01/2000)
...These rough-hewn, Replacements-style rockers have always seemed most comfortable slugging it out on the periphery of rock stardom... - Rating: B-
Entertainment Weekly (12/01/2000)
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