Recently I've re-started collecting CDs instead of MP3s or other such ways of owning my favorite music. For one thing as someone who prefers a full album to a single song CDs just offer the best way to obtain high-quality, easily back-up-able recordings. For another there's plenty of ways for online music to screw you out of being able to listen to a given song or album you want to hear. But I'm also discovering an unfortunate side to the albums on CD model, in the form of the dreaded "bonus track".
In modern times, the bonus track has become the bane of completists who realize depending on where or how you buy an album it might contain a different set of bonus tracks. I thought this was a relatively new phenomenon since online digital album sales make it easier to change what's included in an album without creating a different physical copy. Turns out this is not the case, as even relatively early CD releases show that "bonus tracks" existed even in the 1980s when CDs were new. With a bit of thought the reason is obvious. CDs have a longer runtime than vinyl LPs, 80 minutes versus 45 minutes respectively. (There were some LPs that played as long as 52 minutes, but they were rare.)
The major format change in the 1980s meant that bands had the luxury of less restraint on an album and could fill it out with songs that previously would be cut for time. On the other hand, most people still relied on vinyl rather than upgrading to an expensive CD stereo system. So bands had to compromise between releasing the album they wanted and an album most fans could still buy. For instance Dire Straits recorded an album intended for CD release, specifically their magnum opus Brothers in Arms, and had to shorten it for the LP market by trimming some of the songs by a couple minutes apiece. Other bands apparently decided to cut the track listing from the LP release, screwing fans not out of an extended instrumental at the tail end of "Money For Nothing" but entire songs. The only crime said fans committed was not splurging for the overpriced and low-quality first generation CD technology.
That doesn't really have anything to do with the music on L'eau rouge, except for the the fact that the CD re-release version of this album contains 2 "bonus tracks" that I normally I wouldn't count as part of the album itself. It's not as egregious as what might happen today, with a group like Bloc Party releasing at least 6 different deluxe editions of the same album through exclusive retailers. But it's still annoying to someone like me who 1) values being a completist while 2) knowing that most music I hear I'm gonna judge as lame. So I want to discount the "bonus tracks" to save myself the time while also being somewhat fascinated by the stuff the band deemed unworthy of the album in the first place.
Though the 2 bonus tracks on L'eau rouge were released as non-album singles around the same time as the album, so it's not like the band thought they were awful. It's possible by selecting them as singles the band actually thought they were pretty outstanding songs in their own right. In any case I may have just ranted for no good reason. As if I needed one.
So big problem right away... The Young Gods are French. I'm not racist against anyone, just biased against music that's sung in a different language. I don't give a shit about lyrics, but I do appreciate music more if the lyrics are in my language. I guess it just helps me emotionally connect with the music more, even if the words make absolutely no sense. Even still the music should be able to make up for it if it's good enough. Judging by "La Fille De La Mort" there's a chance that might be the case. The Young Gods have a very theatric orchestral sound largely produced by synthesizers, and the lead vocalist has a deep earthy style, similar to what Metallica prefered in their pure thrash days. The band I'm mostly thinking of now is Rammstein, the German metal group that most millenials should be familiar with from their hit single "Du hast".
Checking out the band's wiki page I find their classification as "post-industrial" to be perplexing. "Post-rock" is already confusing enough. But once music has degraded to the point of industrial, which as far as I know consists mainly of hitting things found in abandoned warehouses, what comes next? Apparently the next step is not to actually play instruments, but to sample instruments so your keyboard player can spit out rough backing tracks. Some of these songs would actually be pretty badass if I knew a real band were playing. Instead now I'm equating The Young Gods to a singer, a drummer, and a DJ. Some people think DJs are actually cool, but I'm not one of them. DJs suck.
So L'eau rouge isn't that bad of an album, but I'm a bit disappointed. Even a group like Napalm Death actually played their own instruments on a piece of trash like Scum. L'eau rouge certainly contains better music, but I'm so depressed that they couldn't get a real group of musicians together to play it. Still I suppose I have to judge an album by the music and not by how it was made. 3 stars.
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