Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Calexico - Selections from Road Atlas 1998-2011 (Quarterstick, 2011)

Calexico
Selections from Road Atlas 1998-2011
Quarterstick
2011

Rating: 7 steak burritos out of 10

"Road Atlas" is an already sold out collection of the eight tour-only releases Calexico self-released over the last thirteen years.  Originally CD only, this box set gathered them all together and put them on vinyl for the first time.  Not the item for a regular fan like myself, but surely their super fans were overjoyed to the point of convulsions and possibly diarrhea.  You know, typical super fan behavior.  

Luckily, they also released a single disc version of their favorites from the is box set, called "Selections from Road Atlas."  Honestly, since this material was very limited first time around, you could have sold this to me as a new Calexico album and I wouldn't have known any different.  As noted before I'm already a fan, so it's no surprise I quite enjoyed this.  If you've listened to the band before you get what you would expect - alt-country/folk/mexicali/melt your face with horns music.  Stylistically it might hop around a bit, as it does cover their entire career, but enough so to be jarring.  Most are studio tracks but there are a few live songs as well.  This is a no brainer for long-time fans, and not a bad place for newbies to start either. 

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