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Track Listing 1. I'm Lost 2. You 3. 4th of July 4. In the Time It Takes 5. Anyone Can Fill Your Shoes 6. See How We Are 7. Left & Right 8. When It Rains... 9. Holiday Story 10. Surprise Surprise 11. Cyrano de Berger's Back 12. Holiday Story - (remix, previously unreleased, demo version) 13. I'm Lost - (remix, previously unreleased, demo version) 14. Highway 61 Revisited - (rough mix, previously unreleased, outtake) 15. In the Time It Takes - (remix, previously unreleased, demo version) 16. See How We Are - (remix, previously unreleased, demo version) 17. (Untitled) - (hidden track)
Album Notes X: Exene Cervenka (vocals); John Doe (vocals, bass); Tony Gilkyson (guitar); D.J. Bonebrake (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Dave Alvin (guitar, bass); Benmont Tench (organ, synthesizer). Producer: Alvin Clark. Reissue producers: Gary Stuart, John Doe. Recorded at Rumbo Studios, Tarzana, California. Originally released on Elektra (60492). Includes liner notes by Kristine McKenna. All tracks have been digitally remastered. After recording their previous album, AIN'T LOVE GRAND, original guitarist Billy Zoom departed. Large-scale success had eluded the band and that release had been specifically designed to reach a wider audience. That success didn't materialize and SEE HOW WE ARE, two years later, was a sort of return to form. The rootsier underpinnings of Exene Cervenka and John Doe's songs were now given wide berth. (This was also the era of their offshoot group, The Knitters, who explored the resonance and beauty of old chestnuts and their contemporary lineage, exclusively.) Ex-Blaster Dave Alvin stepped in as guitarist briefly before Tony Gilkyson joined permanently. Though he appears in a group photo in the booklet, Alvin departed prior to the making of this album. However, one of his stellar numbers, "The Fourth Of July," makes its debut here. That song, along with the title song and "When It Rains" show that X's roots go far deeper than that of most of their (by-then defunct) contemporaries from the late seventies punk scene.
Industry Reviews Ranked #17 in CMJ's Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1987 CMJ (01/05/2004)
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