Uncle Tupelo
"89/93: An Anthology"
(Columbia/Legacy)

The packaging declares that this album is "the first and only retrospective of the alt-country pioneers!" Yeah, whatever.

The more time I spend with this CD the less I like it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Tupelo fan, going all the way back to when they were still around. I can't get enough of the magic of Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy both together in this seminal band and later separately as Sun Volt and Wilco. I just can't figure out what this CD is all about.

It can't really be meant as a panacea to diehard Tupelo fans looking to collect the disparate odds and ends of the band's far-flung discography. Sure, there are some unearthed nuggets from b-sides and compilations, but not enough to placate those who would care. Rarities like "Sin City," "Blue Eyes," "I Wanna Destroy You," "There Was A Time," "Take My Word," "Movin' On," and almost the entirety of the "The Long Cut + Live Five ep" are nowhere to be found. That's ten I can name right off the top of my head and I'm sure there are more.

Of the two unreleased tracks tacked on to attract completists, only one is of any real interest (a cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog.") The other is a pointless, soundalike demo of No Depression's "Outdone." Only the most rabidly fanatical will notice or care about the trivial differences between these versions.

The album can't seriously present itself as a best-of compilation either. How can you choose a selection from Anodyne and not pick "Acuff-Rose," "No Sense In Lovin'," "Give Back The Key To My Heart," or the title cut? For that matter, there is no "D. Boon" or "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" or… well, you get the picture. While I know it is probably impossible to choose a few songs that will please everyone, the omission of such obvious highlights is baffling. I honestly think my crazy tomcat could fish out a more representative assortment, and he doesn't even like alt-country. (He's more into jazz; especially Jelly Roll Morton and Coltrane. Not too bad for being four footed and furry. But I digress.) At least someone thought to include "Chickamauga."

While I am a firm believer that, much like sex, "any Tupelo is good Tupelo," I'm still at odds to figure out who to recommend this to. New fans are served just as well by picking up Anodyne or tracking down used copies of the earlier records. Fanatics will have almost all of this stuff anyway. The only thing that saves this from being an exercise in futility is the uniformly excellent quality of Tupelo's music.

There is also the issue of a possible revision of history going on here too. Jeff and Jay split the vocals on these 21 songs far more evenly than I remember from the original records. By my recollection, Jay was the singer on a pretty good majority of the songs. I could be wrong, but the whole thing looks suspicious to me.

An interior ad from Columbia Records trumpets the long-awaited reissues of the band's first three albums. Supposedly, they will feature remastering (not that it's really needed) and rare bonus tracks. Perhaps the aforementioned missing songs will turn up there. Columbia has the opportunity to really do something special for a band that always deserved better than they got. We can hope they don't screw it up, but I won't keep my hopes too high. This is the same label who botched the reissues of the Byrds albums by first issuing a box set loaded with rarities and then reissuing the original albums without including all of what was on the box, meaning the completists still need the old box set to hear some pretty important songs. And don't even get me started on how Columbia can't put out a decent Simon and Garfunkel box (two tries and counting.) Hell, they'll probably ruin this too.

At the rate that record company is going, pretty soon all life on earth will be threatened by the sheer force of their collective ineptitude. My advice: buy all the Uncle Tupelo related stuff you can right now, then head to a cabin in the mountains to survive the coming Columbia Records inspired apocalypse. When the dust settles and the nuclear winter is over, you and the cockroaches will at least have a satisfying chunk of some of the best Americana ever put to tape.

-Chris