Search - Various Artists :: Have a Nice Life

A surprisingly strong, varied collection.

David Goodwin | Westchester, NY United States | 05/01/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Traditionally, Various Artists CDs--especially those based around a theme as bizarre as this one--are both insipid and obvious; looking at the title of this CD, you could be forgiven for scoffing and thinking that it's all "Breaking Up Is Hard To Dos."Well, whomever put this together had both excellent taste and a drive for the obscure, because this functions as an excellent sampler for the *non*-famous songs of some artists. Instead of anything obvious from the Byrds, we get the excellent "Here Without You." Following the Gene Clark thread, we get his excellent "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" (from the Gene Clark/Gosdin Brothers LP, presented here in mono). Instead of "Red Rubber Ball"--surely an obvious choice--we get "Friends" by the Cyrkle. See what I mean?All in all, this collection provides a surprisingly excellent listen; kudos to those at Risky Business for their foresight! And an extra collector's note for this CD as well: as far as I know, this is the ONLY place on CD to get the rare, 7" version of Sagittarius's "I'm Not Living Here" (this CD came out ages before the Sundazed Present Tense disc, so this was probably the only tape availible). As that single can be incredibly hard to find, save yourself some trouble and get it here. Oh, and the song's great, of course."